The Prize
by Atropos' Knife
Summary: Ban and Ginji wonder if there are some things in life that are best left stolen, especially if the thief is... Natsumi. GinjixNatsumi
1. Game

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **The drill keeps on drilling.

**AN : **Something I needed to get out of my system because I was bored and haven't ironed out the kinks in the plot of my next GB fanfic series yet. A five-part het, non-canon whatchamacallit masquerading as a character study involving the cuteness that is GinjixNatsumi. In the manga, they flirt frequently and he fantasizes about her occasionally, so I just couldn't resist. But instead of a straightforward fluff piece, the story turned out to be – this. (wink)

I mixed anime and manga references and invented a history for Natsumi's character (since nothing much has been written about her and I haven't yet read how she was introduced in the "Birth Arc" – which was totally different from the anime. -sigh- ). Oh well. Anyway, I had fun writing her. :D

ENJOY!

---

_**I. Game**_

Mido Ban exhaled tiny puffs of smoke from his cigarette, creating a screen of fog that shrouded his face. It was the least he could do without actually spewing a volcanic eruption in front of the stately, perfectly-postured elderly woman who sat across from him in the booth.

If the elementary school principal was miffed at having to speak to him as though he were a faceless god hidden behind an omnipresent cloud, so be it. After all, it was she who had come to the Get Backers for help.

But Ban felt he needed the menthol-spiked tobacco fumes to mask himself from the overpowering scents she chose to surround herself with, scents that reminded him of the women in his strange, cursed life which he wanted to blow away; like the faint aroma of old, dank castles, musty books and the lemon verbena hair dressing oil of his grandmother; or the pungent, exotic spice of Maria's herbal potions; and the fragrance of Himiko's sweet perfumes.

Why was it that bad memories sometimes had to smell so good?

"So, you guarantee the return of the _mikoshi_ **(1)** by seven o' clock this evening before the _matsuri_ **(2)** parade?" The school head showed her discomfort at negotiating with the brash young man by endlessly patting and re-patting an imaginary stray strand of hair back into her flawlessly coiffed salt-and-pepper bun.

"It's as good as done, ma'am," Ban promised, each word punctuated by more swirls of smoke. He impatiently tapped the ashes of his cigarette into an ashtray and leaned into the backrest with his arm draped lazily across its length. "How hard can it be to get back an item from a bunch of sixth-graders?"

Amano Ginji turned towards his partner and lifted up his finger with a smile. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Ban-chan. Remember that video game we tried to steal back from that kid for ten yen? Didn't we get clobbered by his big brother –"

There was a dull, heavy thud from underneath the table.

The blond gasped hoarsely as Ban stomped on his foot.

"Hehe. What my friend here means is that there's nothing we won't do to accomplish our job." The spiky-haired _dakkanya_ took off his round, purple glasses and flashed the old lady the full effect of the brilliant blue oceans that were his eyes.

She blinked rapidly, momentarily hypnotized like Eve falling helplessly to the honeyed spell of the serpent. Regaining her faculties about her, the principal nodded and lectured firmly. "Then I trust you will handle this whole unfortunate situation with the utmost prudence and without any children getting hurt."

"You can count on us, Ishikawa-sensei. We'll be in and out before anyone notices the _mikoshi_ is gone." Ginji gave her a thumbs-up. He then bit his lip and looked up. "But I don't understand why we need to use prunes…"

"Prudence, Ginji. Pru-dence," Ban tried to rein in an exasperated snarl through his teeth. He straightened his posture and with folded arms, shot a snooty sideward glance at his teammate. "You'll have to forgive him, Director. I can imagine how much more educated he would be if only he were lucky enough to have studied at your fine institute of learning." The snake charmer kicked the sycophantic flattery into high gear.

Principal Ishikawa cleared her throat, but expressed a hint of a smile despite herself. "Nevertheless, I hear you two boys are the best at what you do. So, very well, consider yourselves hired." She took out a stiff, linen paper envelope out of her purse and slid it on the table over to Ban. "As agreed, 100,000 yen as deposit and the other half upon delivery of the _mikoshi._"

The brunette stubbed out his cigarette, eagerly reached out for the envelope and carelessly shoved it into his jeans pocket in a crumple. "The Get Backers officially accept –"

" – this assignment." Ginji brightly continued for his best friend.

The bespectacled woman made a formal bow of her head and primly stood up to take her leave. Placing some coins on the counter as payment for her cup of tea, she then turned back to face the retrievers.

"We don't usually resort to using 'underground methods' to solve our school problems…" The principal sheepishly attempted to explain while she fidgeted with the antique string of pearls around her neck. "But I'm sure neither of the schools involved in this wants a scandal with the district board and the PTA over such a silly prank. But our _mikoshi_ is an heirloom and my students actually pitched in their money to hire your services. In fact, it was mere coincidence when I found my granddaughter scribbling over one of your flyers…"

She cut herself off and put a hand on her chest. "Anyway, you do understand, don't you?"

Ban and Ginji exchanged curious glances. "Sure," Ban dryly replied.

"Thank you. We'll meet you later at the temple grounds near Shinjuku Gyoen Park," Director Ishikawa reminded as she hastily walked down the bar towards the Honky Tonk's exit.

"Thank you for coming! Please visit again!" Mizuki Natsumi perkily announced and bowed. The woman gave the high school girl a slight smile that told her _'not likely, my dear' _before stepping out the chiming door and letting the sultry August heat encroach into the cool of the café.

Ban twisted his face and sighed. "What a tight-ass. The way that old biddy was holding on to her purse and pearls you'd think we were going to ambush and hold her up at gunpoint."

"Aa. Ishikawa-sensei was obviously uncomfortable. I wonder why she didn't just send someone else to meet with us. Like a pretty teacher's assistant," Ginji chuckled.

"Mmmm. A young, nubile trainee fresh out of college. Heh. Now, _that_ I wouldn't mind holding up at _my _gunpoint," the snaky Get Backer quipped naughtily.

"You guys are unbelievable," Wan Paul's droll voice muttered from behind the diptych of his afternoon edition paper. "When you've got no job, you bitch and whine. When you do get an assignment, still you bitch and whine. Beggars can't be choosers, boys."

"Boss is right, Ban-chan. What's it been? Nearly a week since our last mission?" Ginji slouched back into the bench and clasped his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, yeah…" Ban grumbled. He leaned forward and propped his chin on his palm. "What is it with kids now, anyway? They're such unimaginative, diabolic brats. I mean, who steals a freakin' half-ton portable shrine as revenge for losing a pee-wee soccer match, huh? What happened to the good ol' days of putting itch powder in the gym shorts?"

"… and we really have to re-think our advertising strategies if our flyers are being used as doodle pads by four-year-old toddlers!" He tweaked Ginji's ear and continued to gripe. "They are not our target clients, you idiot!"

"Ow! But I can't help it. I like playing paper planes with the cute kids…"

Natsumi bounced over to the Get Backers' table with ponytail swaying, eyes smiling and a platter of goodies in her hands. "Oh, Ban-san. That's the trouble with you being so smart. You have to nit-pick on every detail," the waitress giggled as she set the food down.

The surly brunette spared her a sly comeback. The trouble with Natsumi was, with her, you were never quite sure whether she was giving you an innocent insult or a well-delivered compliment – or both. Besides, Ban knew better than to talk back to someone who was bearing gifts.

Natsumi passed Ban his usual mug of coffee and placed a glass of iced tea in front of Ginji. To the boys' delight, two plates of sandwiches were on the table as well. "Eat up, guys. My treat. You're lucky you came in on my payday. For some reason, I'm feeling rather generous today," she gushed.

"Wow, Natsumi-chan! Is this a BLT sandwich?" Ginji sat up then lowered his head into the plate until his eyeballs practically touched the bread. "I haven't had one of these in – in - ages!"

"I swear, Natsumi. I'm waiting for the day you buy this rat-hole and kick that cheapskate to the curb," the spiky-haired retriever cackled and tauntingly jerked a thumb in Paul's direction.

The teenager giggled some more.

"Hey. That may someday be the case. But you better believe I'm still going to hound you over your tab, even if I have to do it from beyond my rotting grave," Paul droned. He noisily ruffled his newspaper. "Natsumi, are you sure you want to waste your salary on these two knuckleheads? They're getting awfully spoilt…"

She hugged the tray close and turned to her concerned employer with an assuring grin. "It's no bother, Master. I really don't have much to spend it on anyway."

"But you've got the whole summer to look forward to. Don't you have any vacation plans with your father or your friends?"

Natsumi shook her head. "Dad's way too busy to even think of taking a holiday this year. And my friends are already either touring Europe or sunning themselves on some beach in Hawaii. So, basically, I'm stuck here." Curiously she didn't sound very disappointed.

"Europe? Hawaii?" Ban whistled. " - And they didn't ask you to come along?" Sweetie, with friends like those – "

"Oh, no! It's not that at all. The girls practically begged me to go with them…" She waved her hand. Sheepishly, she continued with a shrug. "But working a full-time summer job is good, too." Natsumi cast her gaze downwards, shiny pewter-gray eyes unconsciously tarrying on the tousled blond head that was still staring hard at the sandwich.

"Work? In this dump? You've got to be kidding –" Ban snorted as he brought the coffee mug to his lips. Then he caught the girl's coy, subtly longing gesture from the corner of his keen eye.

The highly perceptive Get Backer lightly blew at the hot liquid through the tiny smile that formed on his cynical face.

He understood completely.

As usual, Ginji was oblivious – a novice with two left feet in this waltz of glances and innuendoes. His attention remained fixed on the dish before him, fingers drumming anxiously on the rim of the plate.

"It's not poisoned, Gin-chan," Natsumi laughed.

"I know, but –" He looked up at the beaming face above and then over to the red-headed barkeep behind him with pleading doe eyes.

"Awww. Don't look at me." Paul threw up his hands and pages went flying. "She's paying for it."

"Thanks, Natsu-_mmmpph…_" Ginji garbled his gratitude by immediately stuffing a triangle of bread into his mouth. "_Oomp, mmph, mmm.."_

"You're welcome," she answered and happily skipped back to her station behind the counter. Natsumi started to hum a love song as she turned on the faucet to wash the dishes.

Paul's ears were attuned to the peculiar cheer in the girl's voice as it melodiously harmonized with the gentle rush of water and the clink of tableware. Meanwhile, his hidden eyes watched hopelessly as the Get Backers clawed at each other over the sudden disappearance of a piece of bacon.

The quirks of youngsters caught up in the fever pitch of summer. _I'm getting too old for this,_ the restaurant owner lamented.

"Say, guys. Since you're delivering the shrine to the summer festival later, why don't you take Natsumi with you? That way, you can clean out the pantry of some other poor sap while I get to keep whatever food I have left for, you know, _paying_ customers," Paul suggested.

"Hmm?" The waitress paused her chores and tilted her head to one side.

Ginji munched on the remains of what was now just a lettuce and tomato sandwich. "Hey! That's right! You should come with us, Natsumi-chan. I bet the festival will be lots of fun."

"Oh… Um, I'm not sure…"

"It's all right. I'm thinking of closing shop early, anyway," Paul said. "Rena can finish up here when she gets back from the market."

Natsumi's doubtful dark eyes searched Ban's for a sign of approval. What she saw instead was a twinkle.

"I don't see why not," he casually shrugged. "We'll call and pick you up from your place sometime before seven, okay?"

"Yay! I just know the three of us are going to have a great time!" Ginji exclaimed with joy.

Natsumi tucked the loose strands of her hair behind an ear and smiled. Strangely, though, she could've sworn Ban winked at her.

---

Ginji craned his neck upwards and regarded the Ladybug's roof just inches from his worried face. "Ban-chan, are you absolutely, positively certain this thing isn't gonna cave-in on us? I think the roof is sagging…"

"Give my car some credit, will 'ya? She's a lot tougher than she looks," Ban replied with nary an ounce of concern. Bored, he had arms folded against the steering wheel, his head cradled in them and perennial cigarette dangling from his smirking lips.

But the blond had reason to be circumspect. Four black cedar poles lay astride the tiny vehicle supporting a cube resembling a miniature Shinto shrine. It was elaborately covered with metal motifs painted in gold, green, and red and had decorations of phoenix statues, bells, and even a small _torii_ **(3)** gate in front. Scale-sized Japanese lanterns hung from the four corners of its sienna-coloured roof. No doubt, the Ladybug was a bizarre sight to behold as it waited conspicuously in front of the posh condominium in Shinjuku's Skyscraper District.

Ban sneakily decided to change the subject. "Oi. Aren't you wondering about the reason why Natsumi passed up on those trips abroad?"

"Duh. Were you even listening?" Ginji shot his partner a funny look. "Natsumi-chan wanted to work full-time at the Honky Tonk. She said so herself."

"No. I mean the _real_ reason," he pushed on.

"Should there be?"

"Sheesh. Why do I bother?" Ban muttered quietly and shook his head. Then, as if prompted by some invisible cue, the two boys simultaneously shifted their gazes out the passenger's side window and spotted their high school friend joking with the doorman inside the building's lobby. Waving her good-byes, Natsumi exited out the glass doors and carefully walked down the front steps on her _tabi_ socks-and-_geta_ **(4)** sandaled feet.

A duet of soft, involuntary gasps escaped from the surprised retrievers' gaping mouths.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," she sang out apologies in her clear, high-pitched voice.

The Get Backers failed to answer as they continued to gawk. Rarely had they seen Natsumi dressed in anything other than a school uniform or nondescript casuals. Now, however, she seemed to them as a living porcelain _hina_ **(5)** doll in her elegant, ecru _yukata_ **(6)**. The summer dress had an _ikebana_ **(7)** arrangement of tangerine, lemon yellow and salmon poppies with stem, leaves and vines in metallic green and silver printed on one side; while single little poppy buds in he same colours dotted the rest of the robe in a pattern. A plain apple green _obi_** (8) **completed the outfit and was tied behind Natsumi's back in a neat puffy bow.

Meanwhile, her hair was done in a trendy, slightly disheveled up-do that was held in place by a traditional _hana kanzashi_** (9)** hair ornament, leaving a curl of tresses to dangle flirtatiously on the left side of her face.

"Wow." Ginji couldn't help but sigh again as Natsumi landed on the bottom step of the stairs.

"So this is the notorious stolen _mikoshi_. How cute! Congratulations, guys! The Get Backers' success rate, still at one-hundred percent!" Natsumi cheered, her matching embroidered silk drawstring purse swinging wildly as she clapped.

Ban knew he just had to adore a girl who never once inserted the word 'almost' into their catchphrase. "That's why tonight, we celebrate!" He smiled. There was a few seconds of silence among them as Ban waited for Ginji to snap out of his enchanted reverie. He roughly shoved his partner's shoulder in exasperation. "Well, let her in, dummy!"

Ginji blinked. "Oh. Oh yeah. Right." Quickly, he got out of the car and pulled down the front passenger seat for Natsumi. Daintily, she gathered her skirt and settled into the back. Her entrance was a welcome respite from the nicotine-saturated faux leather aroma of the 360's interior. The boys breathed in deep, as if blasted with a breath of fresh air that instantly filled the cabin with the mixed scent of vanilla and newly harvested berries.

Kneeling on the seat like a hyperactive child and with his head smooshed against the roof, Ginji faced the teenager and flashed her a stupid, lopsided grin. "You look really nice, Natsumi-chan. I mean really –"

"Down, boy," Ban mumbled as he flicked his cig out into the street and cranked his car into gear. Stealthily, he ventured another glance at his passenger through the rear-view mirror. He wholeheartedly concurred. Natsumi looked lovely indeed.

"Thanks." She blushed. Then the Subaru hit a bump in the road and the _mikoshi_ skidded slightly to the side. Stiffening in her seat, she pointed above her head. "Er, Ban-san. Are you sure this is safe? I think it rolled off a bit there…"

"She'll hold. It's securely tied to the roof," he reiterated as he floored the brakes hard at a red light. The mini-shrine screeched and jerked some more.

"Oh. Okay then," Natsumi squeaked as she sank further into the cushions.

"You can trust Ban-chan." Ginji winked. "Besides, I'm keeping watch so if this thing begins to crash, I'll be here to protect you."

Ban's eyes were doing pinwheels in his head. The dimwit was laying it on thick, he thought. He wondered where Ginji's 'Chicken Little' act had disappeared to all of a sudden.

Natsumi's trepidation slowly vanished. "You're too much, Gin-chan," she laughed.

"Yeah. I agree. He's too much," Ban gagged.

---

The trio of joyriders knew they were nearing the_ matsuri_ when traffic began crawling at a snail's pace and they could hear the thunderous hypnotic rhythms of _taiko_ **(10)** drums drawing them near to the imperial gardens of Shinjuku Gyoen Park. The beats seemed to syncopate with each meter the car traveled and the festive air grew heavy as they approached the forested grounds of the Shinto temple sponsoring the annual event – a normally serene pastoral refuge now strung about with colourful lights and buntings.

Ban honked his horn impatiently as flocks of people weaved between the bumper-to-bumper line of barely moving vehicles – beleaguered parents chasing after their boisterous imps; groups of office workers coming in straight from rush hour for the free entertainment and cheap eats; gaggles of teenage girls showing off their flashy, designer _yukata_; and hordes of school children in their _hakucho_ and _hachimaki_ **(11)** getting ready for the shrine parade.

"Aw, geez. This is gonna take forever," Ban grumbled as he agitatedly pinked on the steering wheel. He turned to his partner and ordered, "Why don't you two go on ahead while I loop around to the other side of the temple. Ishikawa-sensei and her kids are probably going to assemble over at the parking lot where the procession is going to start."

Ginji frowned. "But Ban-chan, who's gonna help you bring down the _mikoshi_?"

"Don't worry," he scoffed. "I'm quite sure the boys who are going to carry this behemoth are built like midget sumo wrestlers so we'll manage. Now go!" The brunette shooed them off with his hand.

"Well, okay. If you say so," Ginji acceded, a bit bewildered. He unlatched the door and gallantly assisted Natsumi out of the car.

"We really don't mind waiting with you," the waitress insisted, peeking back through the window.

"I'll be fine." Ban hooked onto her with deep, knowing eyes. "Natsumi, don't let him get lost, all right?" Giving her one last small smile, he put the 360 in reverse and ramped off into the opposite lane. "I'll catch up with you guys later. _Ja_!" He shouted over the noise and scampered away.

Natsumi nodded as she watched the strange-looking car with a palanquin on top go. She knew and - at the same time – didn't know what Ban meant by that 'lost' comment.

"I guess we should go inside then," Ginji suggested meekly as they saw the Subaru turn a far corner.

"Mm."

The couple got off the side of the street and up on the narrow thoroughfare flooded with a flow of merrymakers. As they were practically carried by the human wave towards the shrine entrance, Ginji instinctively put a protective arm around Natsumi's shoulders and tried to shield her as best he could from the crush. Finally free from the gauntlet, they were greeted by a wide expanse of space filled with trees, manicured lawns and pruned bushes with the temple looming on a hill high above the grounds some distance away.

Beyond the temple's _torii_ gate, a makeshift wooden stage had been set up and was decorated with gaily- striped cloth banners. Strings of red lanterns cordoned off a large area where traditional _bon odori_ **(12) **dancers were now performing to the music of drums, flutes and _shamisen_ **(13)**.

Most of the people were now gathered around the welcoming orchestra listening to the music and joining in the dancing while they awaited the parade of _mikoshi_. Others, meanwhile, roamed the winding booth-lined paths that lead in and out of the temple and its gardens; cheerfully-lighted kiosks that sold standard festival fare, from grilled food, dumplings, sweets and snow cones; to paper fans and trinkets to make wishes on.

Ginji took a moment to drink in this convivial atmosphere, his glance wandering from sight to happy sight.

Natsumi gazed up at her awe-struck companion. Placing a hand on his arm, she gently guided him into the middle of the festivities as screaming, laughing children darted around them. "Don't tell me you've never been to a summer _matsuri_ before."

"We've been to a few, but only to distribute flyers." Ginji wrinkled his nose. "Ban-chan says that if we browse, I'd just get distracted by all the food and games and stuff we can't afford." He sighed. "He's such a killjoy sometimes."

"You've got to admit, though, he sort of has a point," she snickered. Natsumi stopped Ginji just as they were directly underneath the _torii_. "But you're stuck with me now and we don't have any flyers to hand out. So, I'm allowing you to do whatever you want."

The blond's soulful brown eyes lit up. "Anything?" He grinned.

"Anything," Natsumi pledged. She had hands clamped behind her and rocked back and forth on her heels like an excited little girl. "So, where do you want to start?"

They stood in the middle of the gateway, the last rays of a dazzling watercolour sunset streaming down through the tops of the trees and lending a warm peach-pink glow to Natsumi's earnest face. Ginji thought there was nothing more than the radiant smile she beamed that could make the girl in front of him look prettier than she already was. But he was pleasantly proven wrong time and again while the day drew to a close.

As the promises of dusk submitted to the secrets of darkness, Ginji had a feeling this approaching night was one he was never going to forget.

---

Ban sat on the hood of his Ladybug, conveniently and thoughtfully parked in the only vacant space he could find – the shrine's Zen rock garden.

With immense self-satisfaction, he watched as his young clients had themselves and their just-recovered heirloom exorcised in a purification ritual by the temple's priest before noisily joining in the convoy of parading _mikoshi_. Job completed, Ban jumped off the car and walked over to the nearest booth that sold booze. He thought he'd splurge a little as he fished out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them on the counter.

The swarthy, middle-aged concessionaire viewed Ban suspiciously for a few seconds. Finally, he spoke. "Ordinarily, I'd ask how old you were, sonny. But those eyes of yours… they aren't like any I've seen on a teenager before."

"Believe me, these eyes are older than I ever care to count," the Jagan master deadpanned. "How many beers?"

The man counted the coins with a finger. "Two. But seeing how you're all alone here on a night like this, you look like you need more." He took out four ice-cold cans and put them in a plastic bag. He also threw in a big packet of peanuts. "On me."

"Don't need your sympathy, old man. But thanks anyway," Ban smirked and carried off the bag with a backhanded wave.

"Don't mention it. Pay me back in another lifetime."

_Heh. Figures. A kindred soul._ Ban smiled as he stepped off the crowded, raucous lanes and strolled deeper into the wooded gardens. He climbed up a flight of stone stairs that led into a grotto, sat on the landing and lit up a cigarette – his silhouette and the orange flame from Yamato's lighter in silent communion against the moonlight.

Ban threw his head back and the big cloud of smoke he exhaled was one of great relief. For once, the Get Backers received their fee intact, with no strings attached and no pitfalls involved. He and Ginji could probably get a room for the night and eat well for a week or two. But Ban wondered… How long did they expect to live like that?

He was surprised the thought crossed his mind. For Mido Ban didn't think much about the future. Cursed men such as he never did. But it occurred to him that neither he nor his partner ever talked about what they would do after they completed all the pieces of the puzzle, after their destinies had been decided - after the last battle had been fought.

It was because they knew that by asking those questions they were tempting fate, knowing full well it was possible that one – or both - of them would not even survive to learn the answers.

So they didn't ask. The future would have to wait… if and when it comes.

_But Ginji…_

Ban tapped his foot and held his head in his hands. He mused on whether he made the right decision by leaving Ginji to explore specks of a future on his own, here in this world outside of Mugenjou, away from his kind, away from _him_. Because if there was anyone who could bend fate to his own will, it was Ginji. Ban just hoped this foray into the unknown wouldn't hurt the boy in the process.

And then there was Natsumi…

Of all the women surrounding his partner, Ban felt the sweet, innocent girl was the most incapable of ever hurting him. She wasn't taken (unlike Madoka), loopy (as Rena sometimes was), a blood-sucking leech (definitely Hevn), and never made any attempts to murder him (pretty much everyone else). The worst she'd ever done to Ginji was make him do the dishes after losing the innumerable silly bets they made. And lose he always did. Yet, somehow, the twerp kept coming back for more.

Ban also realized that Natsumi had the distinction of never having been subjected to his own lecherous whims. Sure, he'd tried to peep on her once at the hot springs (with a not-so-reluctant Ginji no less) and gotten her drunk on occasion just so that he could see her turn into a bouncing basket case of giggles. But, so far, she had miraculously escaped his name-calling and impromptu squeezes (not that there was much to squeeze, but still...).

Maybe the reason Ban treated Natsumi with kid gloves was that he respected her too much – like a little sister. And maybe he did it out of respect for Ginji. For even as the blond went on his merry way chasing every skirt that crossed his line of sight, without a doubt, the boy had an undeniable soft spot for the Honky Tonk waitress.

It dawned on the dark-haired Get Backer that unconsciously, he had merely tried to keep Natsumi pure, unspoiled and uncorrupted for his partner – just the way Ginji liked her.

And now, as Ban sat alone on the stone steps biding his time, he was allowing Ginji to pursue a future he might want – with a girl who wanted him…

… the only girl he trusted to give his best friend everything he himself could not.

Because Ban honestly believed, that between the two of them, it was Amano Ginji who deserved a future beyond Ura Shinjuku, beyond the Get Backers, far away and separate from the perils of the life they now shared.

Ginji, not he.

Ban laughed bitterly as he dragged on every last bit of nicotine his cigarette could spare. He thought how funny it would be if those two actually hit it off and produced very cute, saucer-eyed, but none-too-bright human electric eel offspring. He pondered if it was wise to have more Ginjis unleashed into the world.

_Yes. Most definitely, yes,_ Ban decided and laughed again, instantly losing the acrimony and gloom in his voice. He fiddled with the lighter and stared at its proud, steady flame before torching another cancer stick. Shaking his head, he smiled. "Dammit. The things I do…"

And they say Mido Ban was a greedy, selfish bastard.

---

_(to be continued)_

---

* * *

**_(1) mikoshi – _**a portable Shinto shrine that is paraded during Japanese festivals to drive evil spirits away. Some are as big as a small house while others are small and light for children to carry. 

**_(2) matsuri – _**literally, 'festival'.

**_(3) torii – _**a wooden gate, usually painted orange and black, that marks the entrance to a Shinto shrine.

**_(4) tabi_** and **_geta – '_**tabi' aresocks worn with 'geta', traditional raised wooden clogs.

**_(5) hina – _**literally, 'doll'. Hina dolls are collected by Japanese girls and taken out for display on 'Girl's Day' (March 3).

**_(6) yukata – _**lightweight cotton kimono or robe usually worn during summer festivals and in _ryokans_ (inns).

**_(7) ikebana - _**Japanese flower arrangement art.

**_(8) obi – _**colourful sash tied around the waist while wearing a kimono or yukata.

**_(9) hana kanzashi - _**ornamental flower hairpin favoured by junior geishas _(maiko)_. Usually made of silk with long fluttering strings of blossoms dangling from the pin.

**_(10) taiko – _**traditional Japanese drum

**_(11) hakucho _**and**_ hachimaki - _**'hakucho' is the short, white uniform worn by those who carry a _mikoshi_ and the 'hachimaki' is the matching head band.

**_(12) bon odori – _**traditional Japanese dance performed to welcome and console newly departed souls of ancestors.

**_(13) shamisen - _**Japanese lute-like instrument with three strings.

**AN : **Sorry for all the Japanese references, but describing a summer festival without its more salient features is darn near impossible. :D Apologies also if this story is far from being themed to the winter season. I've always wanted to go to a summer matsuri, hence the overkill hehe.

A special note to **Bahaghari.** If you're reading this, rest assured I read your "Sum of the Parts" review through e-mail (even though it didn't appear on the review page) and I appreciate it greatly. Thanks! Hope you'll like this story as well.

Peace!


	2. Set

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **Since this fic is a sappy GinjixNatsumi piece, isn't it obvious GB is _sooo_ not mine? XD

ENJOY!

---

**_II. Set_**

Ginji and Natsumi were huddled among the throngs of spectators lined up to watch the _mikoshi_ parade as it passed through their lane. Music blaring from the loudspeakers and squeals of laughter mingled with the frenzied cries of booth barkers and the traditional forward cheers of the school children as they laboured to carry their shrines ahead.

"Look, Gin-chan! There's the _mikoshi _you recovered!" Natsumi tugged on the boy's sleeve and directed him toward one of the last groups in the procession.

"Hey, you're right!" Ginji's heart cart wheeled with joy at seeing the kids – the clients – with wide smiles on their ruddy faces as they transported their heirloom with pride. Their elated expressions re-affirmed why he became a Get Backer in the first place and made all efforts he and Ban put in worthwhile. If only he could live on those smiles, life would be perfect.

With the parade rear disappearing into a bend, the crowd scattered while the two stood in the middle of the path eating _kakigori _**(1)**.

"Well, if the parade just passed us, I wonder where Ban-san is," Natsumi pouted.

Ginji spooned a big heap of strawberry slush into his mouth, looked up and became thoughtful. "He's around. I can sense him. Maybe he's still searching for us."

The Get Backer sincerely wished his best friend was with them now. But he knew Ban likely had a good reason for not catching up so soon. He always had. Besides, a part of Ginji was sort of relieved that he wasn't there to join him and Natsumi when they pooled their money (Natsumi's mostly) and sampled all the _kushiyaki_ **(2)**, sweet bean pastries, savoury pancakes and candied fruits they could get their hands on. It felt nice for once not to have food filched from under his nose before he even had a chance to smell it.

"Should we go find him?" she absent-mindedly stirred and swirled her cup of lemon ice. "He must be hungry…"

"I wouldn't worry about Ban-chan too much," Ginji shrugged. He then creased his brow. "After all, he _is_ holding onto our 200,000 yen fee." His tone faltered a little. Surely, Ban didn't ditch them to buy a party-sized sushi platter to finish off by himself.

"I suppose…"

Ginji shook the suspicion away. If you can't trust your best friend, who can you trust? He turned and surveyed the park on all sides. Suddenly, he struck the odd, rare brainstorm. Since Natsumi had spent so much on him that day (and many other days, truth be told), Ginji decided to repay her kindness by winning her a prize – a stuffed animal or something – at the game booths. Feeling high and mighty and quite proud of himself for thinking up such a brilliant idea, he took the high school girl's hand.

"Come on, Natsumi-chan, let's check out the games!" the blond exclaimed excitedly as he pulled her over to the area where most of the children had now congregated. Traversing running kids and bobbing his head towards the lines of stalls, Ginji tried to spot a game that caught his fancy. With a big smile, he and Natsumi stopped in front of a booth with a large, flashing board dotted with small, colourful balloons. On top of the board was a shelf that displayed all the cute toys begging to be won.

"Choose any toy you want and I'll get it for you," Ginji declared emphatically.

"Would you really? How sweet!" Natsumi chirped with an adoring sparkle in her eyes.

Ginji put down his 30 yen for three tries and gathered up the dull-pointed darts in his gloved hand. "Sure! Watch me."

Flexing his fingers and prepping himself into a comfortable stance for a few moments before actually doing anything, he finally stood behind the marked line and threw one dart… and then another…

Failing miserably each time.

Staring hard at the last one, Ginji scratched his head, the brazenly confident expression on his face slowly turning into one of sheepishness. To his chagrin, hitting the widely-spaced balloons was harder than he thought.

"Gin-chan! I know! I know!" Natsumi burst out and rushed over to his side. Placing both hands on his shoulder, she tip-toed and giggled closely into his ear. "Why don't you electrify the dart so that it'll attract the static of the balloon or something, tee-hee!"

It was sound advice – except Ginji hardly heard a word of what she said. He was only aware of the goosebumps brought about by her mischievous whisper. Something in the way she said it felt ticklish and oddly pleasant, almost – erotic.

Slightly dazed and arm temporarily like jelly, he shot his last dart aimlessly and speared a fluffy bunny right off the rack. Players and onlookers alike glanced at him in disbelief.

"Er… son? You're not supposed to target the toys," the perplexed proprietor reminded.

"Sorry, _ojisan_," Ginji mumbled in disappointment.

"Oh, it's all right. Here, let me try," Natsumi zealously soothed. Setting her snow cone down, she dug into her bag and slid three 10 yen coins on the counter. Selecting the sharpest darts she could find, the teenager positioned herself on the line with eyes narrowed and lips pursed in dogged determination. Taking strategic aim, she fired.

_Pop!_

"Wheee! I did it! I won!" Natsumi squealed, jumped up and down and twirled with extreme delight.

"Great job, Natsumi-chan!" Ginji raved.

"Congratulations, young lady. Which of these stuffed animals do you want?" the booth owner asked.

"I think I'll take that dolphin," she pointed.

The man handed her the small gray doll. Petting and gazing at it fondly, Natsumi's eyes suddenly grew large and gleaming as silver discs. She offered a shy smile up to her blond companion. "Can I try for another one?" she wheedled hopefully.

Ginji returned the smile. How could he possible say no?

---

Playmates Ginji and Natsumi bounced from one game to the next, testing their skills and luck on amusements such as five-pin bowling, ring-toss, miniature hoops and the shooting gallery. So far, the most Ginji had been able to win was a measly bag of hard candy not even worth the small fortune he already spent on playing. Certainly, not worth giving to Natsumi as a befitting prize, he thought. Ginji knew she deserved better than that.

Meanwhile, his lovely partner had managed to assemble an impressive menagerie of stuffed toys on only a few tries that she needed a big paper bag to hold them all. And her collection was still growing.

Natsumi just completed a tic-tac-toe ball challenge for which she got a little red plastic car. Doubling back to the opposite end of the busy lane, Ginji complimented, "This is awesome, Natsumi-chan. How come you're so good at these games?"

"You forget, I'm a champion table tennis player," she jokingly gloated and snickered. "My aim is perfect."

"I'll say," he agreed with a brisk nod of his head.

Unexpectedly, the Honky Tonk waitress halted before the ring toss booth, her eyes fixating yearningly at the grand prize – a large, quality-made tan brown teddy bear.

"Um, I think we've already been here," the Get Backer noted.

A manic look of resolve crossed Natsumi's features. "I know I can win that doll," she announced and strode over to the counter with her 30 yen.

"Wha -?"

"Oh, it's you again, my dear," the kindly _obaasan_ greeted. "What animal will it be this time?"

"The teddy bear," she smiled and took three small rings from a box.

"Are you sure? You need one-hundred-fifty points for that."

"I'll try my best," Natsumi answered brightly. She appraised the wide table with the thick wooden stakes poking out of it, each corresponding to an assigned point value. They were mostly 'tens' and 'twentys', with a handful of 'thirtys' and one 'fifty' right smack in the middle of the crowded board. She knew it would be very difficult to land all three rings on that single rod.

But it didn't faze her one bit. With Ginji allowing her some space, Natsumi chose her point of attack. Obviously, her first throw would be the most important. Aside from the points, she needed it to determine her rhythm for the next tries.

So, with a flick of a wrist, the girl tossed the first disc; whence it sailed gracefully, caught the stake within its arc and smoothly flitted down.

"Yay!" Ginji clapped.

Natsumi sighed with relief. The hard part had been done and she found her groove. Doing the exact same method on the second ring brought her exactly the same result.

By now, a group of curious passers-by were waiting with anticipation to see whether Natsumi could do the nearly impossible three times in a row.

"You can do it, Natsumi-chan!" Ginji whooped.

She smiled vibrantly in appreciation. Taking a deep breath, the high school student made her last attempt. Gliding low, it seemed as though the ring was going to just graze the blunt end of the stake. However, by some miracle, it dipped, hula-hooped, and jangled for a few suspenseful milliseconds before finally settling on top of the other rings.

To the cheers and applause of the onlookers, Natsumi stood still in elated shock while the laughing booth owner took down the coveted toy from its perch.

"That was amazing!" Ginji enthusiastically embraced her from behind for a very brief moment while a pink blush crept up her cheeks.

"Here you go, dear," the _obaasan_ presented Natsumi with her prize. "This poor bear has been waiting three years for someone to win him and take home." The old lady beheld the spry, blooming young girl and her dashing blond friend with wistful, knowing eyes. "Frankly, I can't think of a better person for him to belong to."

"Thank you, _obaasan_! I'll take good care of him, I promise." With a slight bow to the concessionaire, she and Ginji skipped off merrily.

---

"You know, it's funny how I'm on a roll," Natsumi stepped a few paces ahead, faced the Get Backer and began walking backwards. She and Ginji were now sharing a fluffy ball of pink cotton candy. "You must be my lucky charm."

"Nah… Luck has nothing to do with it. You're really great at this," Ginji praised, picking off the last tuft of the sweet cloud and swinging the bag of toys spiritedly.

"Or maybe it's because Ban-san isn't here," she chuckled. Natsumi wrapped her arms tight around the doll and cuddled her face against it. "Isn't he so cute and huggable?"

"Yeah. He looks just like –" Ginji piped in. He then paused when he glimpsed the teddy bear's deep brown, gold-specked eyes. Astonishingly, it seemed he was staring right into his own.

The raven-haired girl giggled as if hiding some naughty little secret.

The retriever rummaged through the pockets of his khaki shorts, wondering why he could no longer feel the jingle-jangle of coins inside. _Drat!_ To his dismay, Ginji was down to his last 10 yen. How was he going to get anything worthwhile for Natsumi now?

Then, at the intersection of lanes between the games booths and the arts and crafts demo tents, he spotted the summer _matsuri's_ most ubiquitous trademark amusement, _kingyo sukui _**(3)**.

"Hey, let's try if we can catch some goldfish," Ginji suggested as he sauntered over to one of the plastic tanks in a long line. He bent over and peered at the schools of shimmery orange fish that swam in the shallow water.

"Hmmm… I don't know. That'll be hard to do since the nets are always so fragile," Natsumi contemplated. "But sure, why not?"

"Okay!" The blond eagerly handed over his coin to the harassed keeper in exchange for a small bucket of water and a spoon-shaped scooper made out of wire and thin rice paper. The idea was to transport the fish into the bucket with the scoop before the paper net fell apart.

Ginji stood over the tank holding the net, wracking his brain on how best to proceed. Natsumi came over to his side and gently took his hand. "It's a long shot, but the trick is to wait for one of the goldfishes to bob up near the surface…" Her elegant, dexterous fingers curled over his and firmly guided his hand over the water in a trial run. With bodies nestled close, their clasped hands motioned the technique together.

"…and then dip the edge of the hoop under the fish's head and quickly bring it out. Hopefully, most of the paper will be dry when you transfer it to the bucket."

Natsumi released her hold on Ginji's fingers and smiled. "All right? Now you try it."

He exhaled hard and poised the scoop over the water. He tried to remember the pointers she told him, but all Ginji could replay in his mind was the caress of Natsumi's strong hand and the mold of her lithe, taut athlete's body on his as they went through the motions. Then a goldfish suddenly ventured its tiny head out of the pool and he fast-forwarded into reality. Distracted though as he was, Ginji dipped the net in too deep and the paper dissolved immediately.

"Shoot!" he exclaimed. In frustration, he unintentionally discharged a small bolt of electricity through his finger. The pronged tendril traveled through the wire scoop and into the water, momentarily illuminating the fish tank in an intense aquamarine glow.

_Bzzzt!_

Fortunately, the game proprietor had three other tanks to watch over and didn't notice the former Thunder Emperor had just fried his fish. The culprit and his accomplice guiltily observed the bubbling water while one by one, the hapless goldfish floated up to the surface.

With a hand to their mouths, Ginji and Natsumi slowly backed away.

"_Ojiisan!_ Why are your fish all dead?" A horrified pre-schooler pointed at the tank and wailed.

With that, the partners-in-crime turned on their heels and hurriedly shuffled off in the opposite direction. Natsumi pulled Ginji behind a tent giving an _origami_ **(4)** and _furoshiki_ **(5)** workshop and they immediately collapsed into fits of laughter.

"Gin-chan! You electrocuted all those poor creatures!"

"I couldn't help it! I wasn't even close to catching one of those suckers." Ginji put his hands on his knees and caught his breath.

"I swear that little girl was traumatized," Natsumi threw a hand to her chest to hold in her hiccup of giggles.

"How many did you count went belly-up? Enough for a dinner, you suppose?"

"Ah! You're so bad! It's not their fault you have such lousy control." She playfully thwacked him on the arm with her silk purse.

"Ouch! Well, maybe if I didn't have such a lousy teacher," he retorted with a roguish grin, bringing his face close to hers in a mock-challenge. Silently, their huge, dark eyes met, each daring the other to either back down or to…

Suddenly, the flap of the tent flipped open and Ginji and Natsumi leapt apart. A tall, clean-cut young man came out of the tent and was taken aback at seeing two people hiding against the corner. Intrigued, he stared for awhile at the compromised couple before breaking into a wide smile.

"Mizuki Natsumi-san? Is that you?"

Startled, Natsumi blinked rapidly and then clapped her hands together. "Mitsuharu-sempai!" She walked over to the boy and bowed respectfully. "How are you? I didn't recognize you at first since it's been so long. Four years is it?"

He bowed back and answered, "I'm doing well. And yes, four years. But I knew it was you immediately, Natsumi-san. You're still as pretty as you were at the dance."

"Oh, please." Natsumi blushed. She turned to Ginji. "By the way, this is my friend, Amano Ginji-san."

"Mitsuharu Hiroshi. Nice to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you, too," Ginji replied uneasily.

"Anyway, what brings you here?" she asked.

"I'm a volunteer _origami_ instructor. I usually teach the kids on weekends at the community center near here, so this is a regular thing for me. Though this'll be my last stint before I prepare for university entrance exams." Hiroshi pushed up his wire-rimmed glasses. "And you? I heard you won the table tennis regionals a year ago…"

Ginji listened intently as Natsumi and Hiroshi caught up on old times. The high school waitress was so much a part of the Honky Tonk that he almost forgot she had a full, stable life outside of it – with a different set of friends, hours devoted to school and extra-curricular activities, and an upbringing – and future – very alien to his own. It tantalized him immensely to think what it would be like to have a normal life such as hers, or to switch places with someone like Hiroshi whose concept of survival meant the relatively innocuous challenge of getting into _Todai_ **(6)** rather than dodging bullets and blades from homicidal psychos.

The question finally clicked in Ginji's fair, rumpled head. With such safety and comfort around her, why did Natsumi continue to insist on hanging around the Honky Tonk – and the Get Backers?

"… if you happen to need help on preparing for the university tests just call me, okay?" Hiroshi insisted as he and Natsumi exchanged numbers and addresses on their cellphones.

"Of course, I will," she warbled. "You weren't the smartest boy in junior high for nothing, you know."

"Eh. Hopefully, smart enough to land in the top five percentile," Hiroshi shrugged sheepishly and shoved his phone into his jeans pocket. He took some folding chairs laid on a stack near the tent. "Well, I better get back inside. It was good seeing you again, Natsumi-san."

"Good luck on your exams, Mitsuharu-sempai!" she smiled.

"Thanks!" Hiroshi opened the flap. But before stepping in, he turned to Ginji with a glint of regret in his hazel eyes. "I'd hold on tight to her if I were you, Amano-san. She's a real prize." And with a wink, he disappeared inside.

They glanced at each other bashfully. "He thought we were –" the blond stammered.

Natsumi nodded weakly and felt a warmth stir up in her. Quickly changing the subject, she proposed, "Why don't we find out where Ban-san is. Tsk! I totally forgot we could've just called him up."

Together, they walked on the lawn behind the tents while Natsumi scrolled down her phone for the Get Backers' number.

"How long have you known him? Mitsuharu-san, I mean," Ginji inquired. But deep down, what he was really curious about was how _well_.

"Not too long. He was a year ahead of me and we belonged to the same clubs at junior high." Natsumi paused from fiddling with her phone and looked up in reminiscence. "Hiroshi-san was such a nice, bright guy. All the girls had a major crush on him, and I remember feeling like I was the luckiest girl in the world when he asked me to be his date at the spring formal. Then after that, he entered high school and we sort of lost contact."

She bit her lip and went back to her phone. On the side, she added. "I think he has a girlfriend now who goes to my school."

For some reason, Ginji felt a sense of relief having heard that tidbit of information.

The teenager put the phone to her ear and smiled. "Hello, Ban-san? Is everything okay? Huh? No way! It's not serious is it?..."

Ginji's eyes grew wide with alarm.

"… oh, that's good. All right, we'll wait. Do you want to speak to Gin-chan? No? Er, okay. We'll see you later then. Bye!"

"What happened to Ban-chan? Did he get into trouble? Is – " he implored.

"Everything's fine," Natsumi vouched. "He says the car just has some difficulty starting, that's all. He's fixing it right now." She put a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "Though he did sound somewhat – drunk."

"What?" the Get Backer cried. "I knew it! He spent our money and had a sushi platter party all by himself! That snake!"

"You think the worst of Ban-san sometimes, you know that?" Natsumi laughed as she put her mobile back into her bag.

"When it comes to food, yeah," Ginji pouted.

"Hee! Then I guess that's one thing that won't ever change between you two," she teased. "Why don't you ask Ban-san about it later? He said he'll look for us at the shrine gardens." The girl hiked off the grass and back onto the stone pathway towards the temple.

Ginji instantaneously quit sulking and followed her. Admittedly, he wasn't too upset. In fact, he hadn't thought much about Ban at all that past hour having been preoccupied with Natsumi's engaging company the whole time.

_Hmmm…_ It was certainly the first time that ever happened.

"Oh, look! Heaven lanterns!" Natsumi pointed at a stall selling paper trinkets and trifles. Like an exuberant five-year-old, she took flight and zipped over to the unique displays.

Ginji pursued after her. "What lanterns?"

Natsumi held up a multi-coloured bulb-shaped lamp that looked like a miniature hot air balloon with a strip of oiled paper dangling from its bamboo hoop base. "Heaven lanterns. At the end of your festival visit, you write down all your hopes and wishes for the year until the next _matsuri_, attach it to the lantern and light the oiled paper. The further the lantern flies, the more likely your wishes will come true."

"That's nice," he nodded, admiring the delicately crafted work of art.

"Mm. It's quite a nice tradition. Two, please," she requested from the stall owner and handed in her payment. In return, the waitress received two lanterns, some small sheets of paper, two pencils and a book of matches. "One for you and one for me."

"But Natsumi-chan… You shouldn't have – "

"Uh-uh-uh." She waved her index finger and grinned. "No buts. Since this is your first real festival, you should have the complete experience. I insist."

Ginji was rooted to the ground in a stupor, holding a lantern in one hand and a bag of toys in the other. He felt his heart make its first stumble. Giddily, he thought just a few more trips like this and he might be uncontrollably, irresistibly… head over heels.

Natsumi motioned for him to follow. "Since we're meeting Ban-san at the gardens anyway, I know the perfect spot for us to launch these lanterns." The dark gray orbs of her eyes scintillated. "Plus, I have something to give you. Come on!"

They walked further into the shrine complex where the booths were few and far between and the atmosphere was more serene. The music now faint from where they were, Ginji and Natsumi could even hear the gurgle of water flowing through the numerous fountains and brooks that decorated the landscape. While Natsumi's head animatedly darted this way and that trying to locate the place she mentioned, Ginji watched her from the corner of his eye, finding how cute the way the loose strands of her hair were bobbing and swaying like a wobbly coil on the side of her face. He was puzzled why he suddenly fixated on something so trivial as the girl's hair and wondered if it meant something.

---

"Ah, here it is." Natsumi passed through an opening in some hedgerows and led Ginji through a narrow lover's lane shaded by tall trees whose dripping branches had entwined like arms reaching across to each other. They went on a few meters more and out of the tunnel emerged a lily and reed pond walled in by a forest of cypresses, pines, willows and artificial rock waterfalls.

"Wow…" He gasped at the miniature _chisen kaiyo skiki_ **(7)** garden lit up only by the moon and a string of lanterns that hung on both sides of the wooden bridge that arched over the pond.

"Isn't it pretty? Hardly anyone knows about this garden because it's so well hidden." Natsumi got on the bridge and set her things down. Ginji did the same. "Let's set off our lanterns from here."

Naughtily, the two giggling kids turned their backs away yet tried to snoop at each other's wishes as they began to write on the pieces of paper.

"Why are you taking so long? Are you writing a novel? Ginji badgered rascally and attempted a peek while Natsumi covered her sheet with a hand.

She jumped away and stuck out her tongue at him. "Wouldn't you like to know…" That done, they folded their notes into the hoops of the balloons.

The blond jovially lifted the lantern and summoned a spark from his index finger to light the paper wick. Except, what came out was a full blast of current that encapsulated the object in a green plasma and instantly turned it into a blazing fireball in his hands.

Natsumi screamed. "Gin-chan!"

Ginji stared helplessly as the flames ate up his lantern and the night breeze blew the spent embers off his palm. _Damn it! What's wrong with me?_ It bothered him that his circuitry had gone all haywire and that he could do nothing right in front of Natsumi. He'd always been normal with her countless other times, why was tonight different?

"Are you okay?" The teenager squeaked, her sweet face clouded with worry.

_Shit. Now you scared her, genius._ Time for some damage control. "No problem." The Get Backer showed her his intact hand and flashed his sunniest smile. '"Too much voltage, I guess," he chuckled. Then sheepishly, he asked, "Can I share your lantern, Natsumi-chan?"

Fortunately, Natsumi was relieved, so he, too, was relieved. "Sure! I'm just glad you didn't get burned." She did a double take and covered her cheek with her hand in embarrassment. "Silly me, of course you wouldn't get burned." She gave him another piece of paper and waited patiently as Ginji wrote his wishes in his child-like, uneven scrawl.

For their second try, he suspended the lantern while Natsumi did the lighting. "A good old-fashioned match will do the trick nicely, don't you think?" She laughed and struck a matchstick. Ginji joined in her laughter as the oiled paper slowly burned and filled the lamp with hot air. As soon as he felt it rise, Ginji released his hold and the two watched as it floated high and was carried away, its flicker of light blending into the background of exploding fireworks that now rocketed out of nearby Gyoen Park.

Silently, they admired the colourful blossoms, showers and sprays that lit up the dark skies above Shinjuku, hearing only muffled pops and the ripple of water splashing into the pond. Finally, Natsumi spoke up.

"The last time I offered a heaven lantern was at this exact place the summer before my mother died," she reflected sadly. "And all I wished for that year was for her to get better from her illness. But when she passed away, I didn't think I could believe again in childish superstitions such as this. Now, however – " She paused and held steadfastly to the bridge's railing.

Ginji put a hand over hers and squeezed. "I'm so sorry about that, Natsumi-chan." Their eyes met and mirrored each other's past sorrows. "In Mugenjou, I always used to wish on everything – a shooting star, a coin on the ground – anything that would help take the bad things away. You know, sometimes it's okay to believe in superstition because even the silliest things can give you reason to hope. It worked for me."

"And guess where I am now? Hungry, broke and living in a car." The round puddles of Ginji's eyes narrowed into happy, smiley slits.

Natsumi raised an amused eyebrow, her sympathetic sigh crescendo-ing into a charmed laugh at his precious optimism.

"I bet your wish will come true soon, you'll see," he guaranteed.

The girl stared pensively at Ginji's hand resting on hers - warm, solacing, affectionate; yet devoid of the tingly, seductive vibe of a suitor's touch. She sighed. ... _the silliest things can give you reason … _

"I hope so," Natsumi murmured gently.

---

_(to be continued)_

---

**_(1) kakigori :_ **Japanese dessert made from shaved ice flavored with syrup.

**_(2) kushiyaki :_** grilled food on skewers; kabobs

**_(3) kingyo sukui _**: literally "scooping the goldfish", a Japanese children's game from the 17th century

**_(4) origami :_** Japanese art of paper-folding

**_(5) furoshiki :_** large cloth squares traditionally used to wrap and carry anything in Japan

**_(6) Todai :_** short for 'Tokyo daigaku' or Tokyo Universiity

**_(7) chisen kaiyo skiki :_** "strolling pond garden", two ponds which are connected with a wooden bridge arching over the upper pool.

**---**

**_EffyDurach – _**Have long review, will travel hehehe. Thank you, thank you for your very kind props. Oh, the word count of "Sum of the Parts" is probably the least of your worries. I hear I've scared not a few people with that fic, being the sordid craziness that it is (wink). Just don't say I didn't warn 'ya. :D

I'll see if I can check out the RPG forums if you promise not to sulk in the corner, okay sweetie? I'm not that good. :)

Hope you did well on your exams. Happy holidays!

**_rabid lola – _**I love you, too, dear! Yeah, I sort of made Ban dark and tragic here. I've always seen his character as such and that's why he's my favourite character to write about and to whom I give all my best lines. Personally, writing up a romance for Ban is difficult because of how complex and conflicted he is, but sure, I'll take up your challenge when I can. Hee! That is, if I can't get my next humour fic off the ground.

Ginji's tare-children. They would be the mostest, absoluteliest cutest things in the world!

Maligayang Pasko! (I hope I got that right and wasn't cussing you or anything hehe)

**_Bahaghari – _**Nice to hear from you again! FF can get wonky, that's fer sure. Hope you'll stick around for this fic even though thematically, it's miles from my last one (I'm experimenting, hehe).

**_Endless - _**Thanks! I surprised myself, actually, by writing so soon.

**_hikari - _**Aye, aye! Ask and ye shall receive. :D Merry Christmas!

**_limelie – _**You're too kind. Thanks for your support and taking time to read. Cheers!

And to everyone reading this fic, my appreciations to you all. Do drop a line if you can because I love hearing from you.

Happy Holidays!


	3. Match

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **To my immense disappointment Santa Claus did not drop down my clogged, sooty chimney and leave the whole GB franchise with all its standard copyrights and trademarks to me this Christmas. Ergo, he does not exist. :D

Or maybe I should've left sake and sushi instead of milk and cookies.

Happy New Year!

---

_**III. Match**_

Natsumi was content to have Ginji's warm, gloved hand over hers. It was something she came to half-expect, being used to his touchy-feely nature and knowing he made no distinctions whatsoever whether he took her and twirled her around in a happy waltz or made full-body glomps on various members of the Volts; his overenthusiastic gestures were usually without motive and underlying intent. She knew it was safe to assume this was just one of them.

_Safe._ Ordinarily, not a word to cause disappointment; but at that moment, Natsumi felt otherwise.

She stared at the culminating fireworks display with its burst of colours firing up the purplish blue heavens and sensed there must be a metaphor for her and Ginji in all of this. After all, summer was a season full of them.

Yet, as the night wore on, it seemed symbolisms were being wasted on such oblivious greenhorns, like children bedazzled by the magnificent elements of a painting but never really seeing the whole picture.

Then again, symbols only appear to those looking for them. And fate could hardly be blamed for not trying on the young couple.

---

Natsumi's gaze traveled to the opposite side of the pond and she noticed twinkling tiny lights like beacons in a lonely dark sea.

"Fireflies!" she gasped and tugged Ginji with her over the bridge and towards a dim cluster of trees that seemed dripping with a curtain of sparkling emerald gems. Awestruck, the youngsters surrounded themselves with the glittery tapestry, whirling as the insects danced and flitted and flashed around them.

"I haven't seen so many of these since I was a little girl!" Natsumi blissfully exclaimed as she managed to catch one of the elusive lights in her hands.

"This is the first time I've seen one," the Get Backer confessed.

She gaped incredulously. "No kidding?" Natsumi approached Ginji and carefully showed him the living jewel caged within her cupped hands. "Fireflies are also called 'lightning bugs', Gin-chan. Just like you, they create energy within their own bodies; except, their light is produced through a chemical reaction, not electrical like yours."

Ginji crouched down and peered enthrallingly through Natsumi's fingers at the jittery bulb of green – hyper and lively as a Lilliputian version of himself. "Cool! What do they use their light for? Protection?"

"In a way, yes. But only to warn predators they're not good to eat. Mostly, though, they use their light to attract a mate," she explained and released her captive, briefly following its trail as it bobbed dizzily in the air.

"Mate? As in like a boyfriend or girlfriend?"

"Mm-hmm. The males are the ones that fly around and flash to the females who wait in the grass or the bushes. When a female finds a male she fancies, she signals back and he goes to her."

Ginji's brown eyes gleamed with mischief. "Hey, if it works for fireflies then maybe I should use my electricity to attract the girls."

"Oh, Gin-chan. The way you flirt with every girl you see you might as well save your energy and just paint yourself phosphorescent green," Natsumi giggled as she and Ginji walked back to the area near the bridge where they left their toys. "Besides, there are _'femme fatale'_ fireflies that lure unsuspecting males in the guise of finding a mate, only to eat them up as soon as they meet."

He gulped. "Yikes! Reminds me of some girls I've encountered."

Natsumi's eyes widened and shook her head intriguingly. "Hope I'm not one of them," she quipped.

"You? Of course not," he riposted.

As she began to kneel on the grass Ginji stopped her, took off his green military vest and laid it on the ground.

"Here. Sit on this," he offered. "Your dress is too pretty to get dirty."

"Thank you." She smiled, slipped off her _geta_ and gracefully knelt and tucked her feet under her while Ginji sat beside her hugging knees to his chest.

"Fireflies are quite ironic creatures, however. They only live for about a week or so. Having such short life-spans, in Japanese culture, they symbolize both life and death – living fast and dying young," Natsumi continued. "I guess that's why they've always been my favorite insect. So beautiful yet tragic to have their lights extinguished so early like that. Me? I just want them to live forever."

A distant look glazed over Ginji's eyes. His life had so far been exactly the same as that of a lightning bug's, with his light drawing people to him and him to people. _Light so beautiful, yet tragic, like a firefly_.

But he wondered. Was he destined to share the same fate?

Clearing her throat softly, Natsumi gathered up the courage to ask. "Speaking of girls you've encountered, did you ever have someone special in Mugenjou?" She immediately bit her nails in embarrassment, realizing the temerity of her query. "I mean, I understand if you don't want to answer…"

The former Thunder Emperor forgot about his destiny for now and laughed. "It's all right to ask, Natsumi-chan. Um, no. I was too preoccupied with helping protect Lower Town to even consider it." His voice lowered. "A few girls - members of the Volts - showed interest though; most likely, because I was their leader, nothing more."

Ginji tried snatching bits and pieces of his past from the back of his mind, trying to recall which girls those were. Aside from the fact that they were plucky enough to overcome their almost cultish fear of him, he didn't remember much about those instances except that the women would profess their seemingly undying, devoted affection and yet when he canvassed their eyes, he could see nothing in them but their blind ambition. And when they stared into his, no one could see past Raitei or through the fathomless power incarcerating the boy that was Amano Ginji.

Even in the depressing daze of his existence then, Ginji already knew none of their consecrations bore any resemblance to his elementary, uncomplicated ideas of 'love' - or something like it. He was aware that it was Raitei they wanted and were attracted to, not him. _It was only on that day…_

"So, maybe that's why I like girls so much now," his tone perked up again. "I'm just making up for lost time."

"I'll say," Natsumi snickered and shyly held her fingers to her lips. "And here, outside of Mugenjou?"

Ginji pouted childishly. "No such luck. Mainly because of Ban-chan, I think. Him being so charming and all." Then a blush tinted his cheeks as he recalled a memory. "I did have sort of a crush on Madoka once."

"I knew that." The waitress smiled.

"You did? How – "

"We all knew. Everyone involved in the Stradivarius retrieval mission. You didn't exactly hide it, you know."

Ginji cocked his head. "Oh. That obvious, huh?" He sighed. "Anyway, I don't know what it was about Madoka, but we'd only just met minutes earlier, and as we came out of that dark alley where I found her, she held my face in her hand and stared at me with those strange, mysterious black eyes. And it was as if she _saw_ me, without really _seeing _me."

Natsumi nodded in complete understanding.

The Get Backer frilled his nest of blond hair. "But knowing how that turned out, I guess Madoka saw more in Shido than she did in me," he concluded with a grin and without a twinge of regret in his voice. "-Which is fine, because those two belong together."

"Mm. They do. I agree."

Ginji turned toward his companion, wondering why she became quiet, a little sad even. Before words came out, however, he couldn't help but study her profile in the halo of an opalescent moonlight, noticed how the light beige of Natsumi's _yukata_ complimented her glowing peaches-and-cream complexion and how nice her hair looked pulled up and decorated with the white and orange silk flowers of her _kanzashi_, its strings of tiny buds swinging every time she moved. The teenager reminded him of an expensive collectible _geisha_ figurine, her beauty frozen and fragile behind a thin veneer of glass with only her owner allowed to touch.

How was it possible that a girl like that had yet to belong to somebody? He pondered.

---

"What about you, Natsumi-chan? Anyone special in your life that you're hiding from us?" Ginji coaxed. He plopped down onto the soft, fragrant grass and clasped his hands under his head.

"Nope. I suppose I'm still waiting for the right guy," she replied cryptically. "Because, really, I can wait even if it takes forever."

"Heh. A guy who would make you wait that long is stupid," he asserted loudly. "I'd zap a few thousand volts into him if it'd knock some sense into his head."

Natsumi giggled wildly at his threat.

"What?" Ginji propped himself up on his elbows with a bewildered expression. At least she was cheerful again, he thought.

"Oh, nothing." She waved her hand with a rakish smile and brought the bag of toys between them.

He viewed the package with a faux wounded spark in his eyes. "Oi. You don't have to remind me of how awful I was at those games by playing with your dolls in front of me," he groaned teasingly. "How many did you win anyway? I lost count…"

"Gin-chan, when you were a child did you have any toys to play with?"

Ginji furrowed his brow, thinking what an unusual question that was. "Not really," he starkly answered, lying back down. "The kids in Lower Town didn't – couldn't – play much." He blotted out the terrible memories of Belt Line raiders picking off his playmates like flies.

"When we did, we just kicked cans or hit ratty old baseballs with sticks, that sort of thing. Why?"

"I figured as much," Natsumi said and lifted up the dolphin from the bag. "That's why when I won this plushie, I decided I'd win as many more as I can just for you, since it's never too late to start a toy collection… toys you missed when you were growing up."

"Huh?"

She smiled and placed the dolphin squarely on Ginji's chest. "I got an animal to represent each of the Volts. This is MakubeX, since you once told me he always wears a dolphin pendant around his neck…" She put a lion next to it. "… and this is for Shido-san, who's so brave, even though Ban-san keeps calling him a monkey…"

"Natsumi-chan…" Ginji whispered hoarsely, unmoving as she playfully assembled a small Noah's Ark on his torso.

Kazuki was a spider; Jubei, a wolf; Sakura, a parrot… "I even got one for Toshiki-san. Is he considered part of the Volts now? I wasn't sure…" She held up a black cat beanie.

"Oh, but I think you'll agree that Emishi-san is definitely a clown." Natsumi grinned as she slipped a clown hand-puppet over her hand and waved at Ginji with it.

"… and this is supposed to be the Ladybug, even if it looks nothing like her," she prattled on, showing him the red toy car by wheeling it on the grass.

"Natsumi-chan…"

She abruptly stopped rolling the plastic car and batted her eyes at him curiously. Deep down, she dreaded perchance at having brought up some horrific reminiscence in him. "Yes?" she stammered.

Strange was the feeling of receiving something for absolutely no reason at all. It wasn't his birthday, there was no occasion for a gift, and here Ginji was getting toys because Natsumi simply felt like giving. Why he was amazed at the fact surprised him for he actually couldn't remember a time when she _hadn't_ been like that. She had an uncanny knack for figuring out the little things that were missing in his life, reading him and noticing the blank pages in his book, trying to fill them in her own small way. Natsumi paid so much attention to him, and it didn't even look like she was trying very hard.

Had it always been so natural, or had he just never noticed?

"Er… Um… Toshiki-san… He's sort of a member of the Volts because he helps protect MakubeX and Lower Town together with Emishi-san, Jubei-san and Sakura-chan. But he's fiercely loyal to Kazu-chan, so… just like you, I'm not quite sure," Ginji stuttered sheepishly. He said this while struggling not to tip the zoo on his body off-balance.

"Oh, really?" Natsumi breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute there, she wondered if she had offended him somehow. Now, her eyes grew mirthful at the comical sight of the blond delivering a lecture on the Volts / Fuuga hierarchal structure while lying down on the lawn with a jiggling menagerie on top of him.

Taking out the last item in the bag, she shook a tall can and handed it over. "And this…" Natsumi declared dramatically. "… is Ban-san."

Ginji raised a puzzled eyebrow. "A can of peanuts? Ban-chan?"

"Open it," she ordered, suppressing a laugh.

Dubiously, he placed the tin in the middle of his waist among the animals and made a face. Lifting the lid, a long fabric spring snake leapt out.

"Waaahh!" the Get Backer howled and sat up. Everything – the toys, the snake, the can – flew in all directions amid a green electrical fog.

A soft snicker escaped from the knocked-down girl beside him. Quickly, Ginji crawled over to her and inquired frantically, "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry… It was just a mild shock," Natsumi breathily responded between chuckles.

"It's not funny!" he frowned. "I could've hurt you!"

"I knew you wouldn't."

"I know. But still…" A smile slightly curled up against his will. " …that snake was scary."

"Just like Ban-san sometimes, huh?"

"Aa." Ginji rolled his eyes and helped Natsumi sit up so that they faced each other. "Okay, funny girl, if that's Ban-chan, then who am I?"

"Easy." Natsumi grabbed the teddy bear, gently knocked it against his head and dumped it into his lap.

The retriever clutched the furry doll in his hands and blinked. "This teddy bear. Me?" The waitress shrugged innocently at him. "This very bear that waited three years to go home with someone until you came along?"

"Same. Maybe it was meant to be," she joked.

Ginji shook his head and put the toy back in Natsumi's arms. "No. I'm sorry, but I can't take him. He belongs to you. You worked so hard to win him fair and square."

"But – " She started, wanted, to tell him she specifically won the stuffed animal for him - and then cut herself off. There were a few seconds of wordless calm between them before Natsumi nodded slightly.

"Besides, you'll take better care of him than I ever can. If you left him with me, I'd probably just toss him in the back of the Ladybug…"

" – or he'd get lost somewhere constantly," she chimed in with a smile.

"… and when Ban-chan gets into his moods, he'd most likely use him as a punching bag..." Ginji wrinkled his nose. "…or kick him into a wall or something."

"Poor thing!" Natsumi exclaimed and hugged the doll tighter. "All right, I'm convinced. This bear is coming home with me and not leaving my bedroom ever!"

The two naïve, dewy-eyed youngsters shared a boisterous laugh, unwary of the subtle allusions and subtexts that they just exchanged. Then Ginji's laugh faded into a heavy sigh and suddenly, he became serious.

"Natsumi-chan, you putting all your effort and winning these toys is about the nicest, most thoughtful thing anyone's done for me since Ban –" he proclaimed, then faltered. "How can I ever thank you?"

"It was nothing." She tried, and failed, to sound casual.

" – And it's not just the toys. It's the food, the coffee, the times you wait up for us, sometimes late into the night… Why? Why do you do it?" Ginji gently implored.

"Why not? Do you need a reason?"

"Maybe."

Natsumi nervously twisted and wound the strap of her purse around her fingers. With gaze downcast on the toy bear, her voice cracked. "It's because… because… I don't know… It's the least I could do to help you guys out. I mean, I'm just a nobody. If only I had abilities like Himiko-san or even the skills of Hevn-san, I might be able to do more…" She used a cold, clammy hand to chill her flushed cheek.

Ginji inched closer to the disheartened teen, lifted her chin up with his finger and tilted his head. He tried to catch her averted eyes. "Don't say that, Natsumi-chan. Having these powers is more of a curse than a blessing. If only Ban-chan and I could live the same kind of comfortable life you live, we would; we'd get rid of our pasts and start all over again. If you could only see the dreams I –"

Natsumi halted his rambling by raising her hand and lightly brushing the unruly blond spikes that grazed his eyes to the side. "If I could only see… Hmmm… funny, because every time I stare into your eyes it's like looking into forever. Have I told you that?"

And just like Madoka had done, she cradled his cheek and forced Ginji to meet her penetrating stare. "If I see into your dreams, do you think I can find out who you really are?"

Stunned, he had no choice but to drown in the pools of Natsumi's polished silver-gray irises. Ginji let them reach deep into him and probe, his body feeling heavier and heavier as though her soul had transited through those windows and melded with his; she ignored his past, understood his present, passed beyond everything else and saw glimpses into a future. The visions and dreams Natsumi had unlocked seemed pulled from within a part of his spirit kept secret from Raitei, untouched by the cruel divinations of the Archive.

Amano Ginji's dreams, and his alone.

They reflected back from the mirrored surface of her gaze and Ginji could vividly see what she had seen – a house, an ocean, a table full of glorious food, laughing children and a body spooned against him on a warm bed in the afterglow of a summer morning.

But it was only Ginji who would be able to see the face behind the visions – only he could decide whom it should belong to.

He took one last look at the stranger in his illusion, who finally turned in his arms and gave him a lingering kiss. '_Good morning,' _the sleepy, smiling face whispered, pulled away and plumped into the pillow.

"Natsumi-chan!" Ginji gasped, his fantasies sucked back into his consciousness and he, back into the reality of the present.

Guiltily, the girl dropped her hand and attempted to move away. She realized it was so unlike her to act the way she did, yet found she couldn't help it. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to –"

Ginji tried to still his heart as it slipped once, tumbled twice and began a rapid, steady fall. He didn't even notice the crimson trickle out of his nose.

"Oh no! You're bleeding!" Natsumi hastily dug into her purse for some tissue. "Look up, Gin-chan," she commanded as she dabbed at the blood and he put a hand on her shoulder for support.

Staring up at the stars through misted eyes as she nursed him with typical efficiency, Ginji wondered what it was that kept him from seeing Natsumi in this totally new light. Or why he thought he needed to make excuses for this flight of fancy.

Maybe the answer was closer than he had imagined.

"Oops. Were you in the middle of something? I can come back later if you want," a raspy, smoke-scratched voice drawled.

The surprised couple turned to see Ban slink towards them from the bridge. Ginji almost expected his partner to ask if he just had a nice dream. No dice. The fantasy was solely his own.

Pulling his violet specs down with his middle finger, the brunette Get Backer surveyed the scene with a smirk. "Hmmm… discarded clothes, a bleeding nose and toys scattered all around? Kinky."

"It's not what you think, Ban-san." Natsumi deflected her eyes to the ground as she started picking up the toys and putting them back into the paper bag.

"Yeah. Get your mind out of the gutter," Ginji protested nasally as he continued to put pressure on his nose. The flashbacks that replayed in his mind kept the blood flowing.

"Oi. I only tell it like I see it," Ban shrugged with a devil-may-care grin.

The blond slipped his vest back on. "And you've been drinking, haven't you?"

"So what? Didn't I say we were gonna celebrate?" he nonchalantly gabbed.

"You were supposed to celebrate _with us_!" his best friend complained.

Ban's jaw dropped open. "Don't tell me – Oh, for chrissakes!" He placed his hands on his hips, tapped his foot on the lawn peevishly and bit the filter of his cigarette with his teeth. He regarded Natsumi's confusion and it was clear she sure didn't look like someone who had been professed to in any way. The Jagan master then directed his ire at his doofus of a partner and smacked the side of his head.

"Hey! What the -!"

"Geez! You're such an idiot! And this was a perfect spot, too. Gah!" Ban exploded. He dragged Ginji by the collar over the bridge and out of the pond garden with Natsumi following closely on their heels.

At the shrine commons, most of the booths had been dismantled, carted away on wooden trolleys. The air was quiet now, filled only with the hushed chattering of festival stragglers rushing to catch the last trains home.

"I can't believe I hid in that grotto for nothing," Ban continued to grumble as the Get Backers half-lurched, half-staggered towards the parking area.

"Wha-what d-do you mean by that?" Ginji sputtered as he was jerked to-and-fro. He tried to keep on his feet as his sneakers scuffed the pavement.

"Must I do everything myself? How much time do you need anyway? Nothing you can't accomplish with a little action, you know. Either you get answered by a smooch or a slap on the face. Works for me every single freakin' time," the loudmouth blabbed on.

Ginji twisted his head back at Natsumi, grappling for some explanation. The clueless waitress could only shake her head and shrug.

---

Arriving at the nearly empty parking lot, Ban opened the driver's side door of his 360 and shoved Ginji inside. His brown eyes grew as large as the steering wheel before him and shot up a beseeching look through the window.

"Ban-chan…"

The spiky-haired scamp narrowed his wild blue serpent's gaze and slammed the door. "Shut up!" He tossed the car keys into his partner's lap and went over to Natsumi's side. Unlatching the passenger door, Ban gently herded her into the seat.

He peered into the sunroof as the muddled couple glanced up at him. "Ginji, drive her home will 'ya? In my condition right now, I'd be D.U.I. and – stuff. No point in getting all three of us killed, right?" The brunette grinned. "This way, if you crash, only the two of you - "

"Ban-chan!"

"Just kidding! Sheesh. No one appreciates gallows humour anymore…" Ban rapped the top of his beloved car. "Come back for me later, okay? And bring Natsumi and my Ladybug home safe and sound, you hear? I'm going to sleep this off for a while."

With that, he ambled off to a nearby bench and slumped into its wooden boards.

Meanwhile, Ginji gripped the wheel and reflected before keying the ignition. "Ban-chan's acting really peculiar. He _never_ lets me drive this car. The only reason I even know how to drive is so I can take over in case of emergencies. But not if he can help it."

"Ban-san must be very drunk then," Natsumi mused, her voice tinged with a degree of suspicion. She tried to hide the doubt that shrouded her face over Ginji's questionable driving skills by smiling. "Well, I guess now's your chance to practice, yes? Don't worry, I'll help you. Who knows? This might be fun."

Ginji cocked his head to the side. "Hey, do you always find fun in danger? Because getting into a fender-bender, landing in a hospital and having Ban-chan kill me afterwards is not my idea of a good time."

"You spoil sport." Natsumi pouted prettily. "Okay then, it looks like you need a little motivation in getting me home in one piece." She mulled over her options and then a lightbulb flashed in her head. "I got it! What do you say I include a slice of cake with your coffee everyday for a month if we get through this adventure without a hitch."

Ginji chuckled with amusement at her challenge. "You're so weird to wager our lives with cake…" Avidly, he inserted the key into its slot, a competitive gleam glistening in his eyes. "Ehm… Fine. Make it chocolate fudge and you're on!"

Nonetheless, he bit his lip and squinted. "But what if we don't –"

" – Then you're paying the hospital bills." Natsumi smiled.

The young gamblers traded expectant giggles as the engine whirred.

Ban peeked anxious eyes over his glasses and between the slats of the bench he was lying on. From a distance, he watched in excruciating horror while his best friend manhandled the poor Ladybug, pushing her into a few jolting fits and rattling stops before the tiny vehicle managed to lumber out of the parking lot and into the street.

Ban sat up, cringed and repeatedly hit his forehead with the heel of his hand. "This is insane."

---

"Don't forget to switch to neutral," Natsumi reminded as they stopped at a traffic light.

"Oh, right. Thanks." Ginji smiled as he pulled down the gear. "I didn't know you could drive, too, Natsumi-chan."

"Mm. But I'm not allowed to drive much until I get a car when I turn eighteen," she replied perkily with a twinkle in her anticipating eyes. "Then maybe I can be as good a driver as Ban-san is and help you out with your missions." Fidgeting in her seat, Natsumi propped her chin in her hand and became contemplative. As Ginji hit the accelerator on green, she suddenly jumped and shrieked, making him swerve and almost hit a taxi.

"What! What happened?" he yelled.

"I know! I think I'll study criminology and forensics science in college. That way, if you guys ever need help with clues and evidence and stuff on a case I can be your insider!" Natsumi rejoiced, thumping Ginji excitedly on the arm. "This is so cool! And I'm good at the sciences anyway…"

The Get Backer chortled despite almost losing his chance at a month's worth of sweets. He tried desperately to keep his eye on the road but found it hard not to steal glances at the spunky, winsome firecracker next to him. _Careful,_ he thought. Balancing a sense of direction with the intricacies of gear, clutch, accelerator, steering and brakes was taxing enough on his overworked brain without having a cute, loquacious girl as a distraction.

But distracted he was, Ginji inevitably realized, losing himself in the labyrinth of his mind as it blurred boundaries and met up with the physical maze of familiar streets. _Too familiar_.

Littered with broken lampposts and toppled dumpsters spilling out the remnants of a discarded, meaningless day; the area shuttered itself behind boarded windows as if to keep whatever shell of life its inhabitants had immune to the menacing epidemic that saturated the atmosphere, unaware that the virus had already seeped through the cracks… incubating … infecting… eating at their fibre and festering in their souls…

And high above this quarantine covered in the graffiti odes to vandalized hope loomed 'big brother' himself; observing, manipulating, and impudently using the moon like a prison floodlight to spy on his subjects' comings and goings. Tonight, he took special interest in the little white car that was lured into the territory's traps.

Had his prodigal son returned?

Ginji eyed the surroundings with disdain. He had no love lost on his old haunt, loved it even less at night. "Lock your door and roll up your window, Natsumi-chan," the Get Backer urged as he did likewise. "I'm so sorry, but I must've made a wrong turn somewhere." He frowned. "Old habits…"

The high school girl viewed the grim desolation around her. "Is this… Mugenjou?"

Ginji nodded. "We wandered into its outskirts." The car approached a dead end in the road. As he tried to put the Ladybug in reverse to back out, he impatiently released the clutch too early, stalling the engine and making her rumble in protest.

The low groan and the utter alienness of the vehicle on the bleak, deserted street caught the attention of the misfits, junkies, and ruffians that crawled out of the rotting woodworks and crumbling stone boxes that pathetically lined its edges. From punks in torn leather and neon plumed hair, to hip-hop wannabes layered in bling and raggedy sports kits, this loose assemblage of a gang was anarchic even in their appearance; brought together only by the mutual itch they needed to scratch with fingers curled tight around weapons.

Natsumi receded into the seat cushions as her side-door handle rattled. Suddenly, a face squashed into her window. "Eeeek!" she screamed.

"Hey, pretty girl. Leave the loser boyfriend and come party with us," the thug mouthed into the glass. The crowd moseyed up to the car and began teasing it with their implements.

"Too bad this piece of junk ain't worth stripping. What's inside, though – " An acne-scarred teen with gold-capped teeth jumped on the Subaru's hood and tapped his billy club on the windshield, grinning lasciviously at the occupants.

"It's all right, Natsumi-chan. I'll handle this." Cranking the hand brake, Ginji stood on the seat and poked his body out the sunroof. Calmly, yet sternly, he admonished, "Listen. I don't want to cause any trouble… I'm asking nicely. Please leave us alone and we'll be out of here in a while…"

He held his palms together in a begging gesture, a humble request with the only distinction being that veins of stinging current ripped from his fingers and lashed out around him in a protective blue-green net. The ionic pulse blew the mob back in a subsonic shock while Natsumi shielded her eyes, blinded by the brilliance of the light and feeling like she was suspended in the zipping particles of the heavy static charge. Never had she witnessed his electricity as powerful and striking as it was at that moment. The girl was awed, mystified, and even attracted…

… but strangely, not scared.

Gasps. _"It's Raitei…"_

Whispers._ "I thought he left years ago…"_

Stammers. _"Let's get out of here…"_

"We're sorry to have bothered you," one of the punks apologized meekly as he took giant strides backwards. One-by-one, the dumbfounded goons with hackles raised crept loose-limbed and shaking back into their corners and crevasses.

Ginji sighed as the luminescence attenuated and he quickly slid the canvas cover over the Ladybug's roof. As he fastened it to the screws, he noticed Natsumi snuggly holding the teddy bear to her against the distinct, deathly chill of Mugenjou's air.

Her eyes tore away from him and were hypnotically drawn to the narrow, bonfire-lit alley that snaked up from the cul-de-sac slum and literally, into infinity. She was absolutely certain the intensity of Ginji's power had poured from that black beyond and was absorbed hungrily by him - like water to parched desert sand.

The blond sat back down silently and poised his hand over the stick to give the car another go. But even he had been entranced by the tower's mesmerizing spell as it beckoned the abdicated emperor to take back his throne. Amano Ginji who sat transfixed and frozen as he tested his will against the real and virtual whispers that promised him more of that unlimited power he had tasted once again – so as long as he returned to the fold.

But those were all they were now. Whispers that fell on deaf ears.

"Nobody has told you much about this place, am I correct?"

"When I was a child, and even now, it was sort of taboo to speak of it…" Natsumi said numbly. "… much less go near it."

"That's just as well," he droned, eyes going cold. "Everyone used to say you were safe if you stayed beside the Thunder Emperor. They didn't know how wrong they were. No one realized it at the time, neither of the Four Kings, nor did the Volts understand how I – he - could've destroyed everything. And then…" He paused.

Pointing at the inky darkness ahead, Ginji narrated. "This was the alley I passed through when I finally left the only home I'd ever known. It was raining hard as I walked all the way to the Honky Tonk. That was where _Mido-kun_ – that's what I called him at first – said we'd meet. Soon after, we became the Get Backers, and then we met Hevn-san, and you…"

The hardness in his eyes immediately softened into the warm liquid depths they always were. "You see, it was Ban-chan who saved my life. And although none of the residents know it, he saved the lives of those in Mugenjou as well. He gave all of us a second chance."

"For that alone, I owe him everything."

Ginji turned to his captivated companion. "And that's why I left. Ban-chan and I lost so much in our lives. We had nothing. But being with someone doesn't cost a thing. So we became friends - even though everybody hated us afterwards. But at least… at least… we were happy."

Natsumi gazed adoringly at the serene, fair face of the boy they called Raitei and found it unimaginable, inconceivable that this most kind and pure being used to be feared and hated in so brutal and forbidding a place.

"But everything's okay now, right?" she asked.

"More or less." His voice broke with remorse. "I'm sorry I never told you about my past, Natsumi-chan. I just didn't want you to hate me or be afraid of me because of it."

The teenage girl's silver-gray eyes were like mirrors in the darkness as they glazed over with tears. She wrapped her hand around his on the stick-shift of the car. "I don't care what they called you or what you did, because you've always been Amano Ginji to me. And the Ginji I know would never intentionally hurt anyone or do anything to make someone hate him. Therefore, I find it quite impossible for me to hate or be afraid of you, silly."

"In fact, I'm very proud of you."

The brightness of the Get Backer's smile rivaled that of the watching moon, and instantly, Mugenjou's whispers stopped. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Her hand still over Ginji's, Natsumi pushed the stick into reverse. "Now that's official, you think we can go now? I've had enough of this tour for one night."

"Mm. Me, too."

As the little white car turned and slipped away, the phantom shroud of the tower stalked its retreat. Reluctantly, the darkness waved. It could even be said that somewhere within the concrete womb, a blip could be heard on a scrolling screen of ones and zeroes; the sound of the Archive making an amusing minor adjustment, seeing as to what company the golden child was currently keeping.

But… The Infinite Castle would have to do without its heir – for now.

---

_(to be continued)_

---

**A.N. : **That little dream of Ginji's was inspired by an incident in Volume 3 of the manga near the end of the Platinum Melon Arc, where expecting to get fat from his riches, Ginji contemplates joining a gym.Whence forth he fantasizes about Natsumi in workout clothes, her school swimsuit, and under a towel in a sauna offering to give him a massage. Then he gets a nosebleed, hee! It's all very cute and proves, for such a nice boy, Ginji is not _that_ innocent. :D

---

**_obssdGB :_** I didn't think I'd be writing so quickly myself. My next fic was supposed to be a humour/action piece that I haven't completely figured out yet. This is an in-betweener, I guess. Ban didn't leave them alone for too long, did he? But wait till next chapter. Thanks so much for the compliments!

**_hikari :_** Cute. I think that's the current consensus on this fic. It might (could) change, though. :D Hai! Writing. I'm on it.

**_Bahaghari : _**Quite an experiment indeed, thematic-wise, as you'll see in the next chapter. Thanks for the props!

**_Ban Midou : _**Thanks! Happy New Year!

**_rabid lola :_** I'm just drawing out the cluelessness factor as a set-up for something else. If it makes you go 'kilig' or not, well… /wink/. The Japanese stuff I picked up on my travels to Japan when I was younger (ahem), but a lot of them I get from watching Japan Embassy documentary shorts _"Japan Video Topics"_ on public TV. As for the plushies, Ginji will probably decorate the Ladybug's dashboard with them hehe.

And I agree, Ban is just as dense as Ginji. Maybe even more so, since he's got this little thing called 'pride' . :D. Manigong Bagong Taon!

**_EffyDurach :_** I hope you are well and weren't affected by the awful tsunami that hit the southeast coast of India (and the whole Indian Ocean area).

Glad you liked this chapter. If you can, drop me a line at the SotP review section and tell me what you thought of it. Wishing you a good new year! :)

**_TheOriginal :_** Thanks for your kind words. I'm really flattered. Even though SotP is finished, you can still tell me what you think of it, okay? Have a nice new year!

**_bc :_** I thought the Japanese references added local flavour to the description of the summer festival. But as you can see, since that part of the story is over, bye-bye Japanese words. :D Thanks for the review!

**_Endless :_** Hello! About those wishes? Maybe you'll find out next chapter ;). Happy New Year!

**_Littleadryan : _**Thanks so much for reading! Hope you liked this chapter, too. :D

**_limelie :_** I always make Ginji the unfortunate sap in my fics. But who knows? He might get lucky in the next chap. ;). BTW, I read that you have all 27 volumes of the manga. Would you be so kind to explain how the Get Backers first met Natsumi and Hevn (in Vol. 26, is it?)? I know they meet under totally different circumstances from Ep. 1 of the anime and it's driving me nuts! Pretty please? For my sanity's sake? Thanks! Manigong Bagong Taon!

**_Mayumi-san :_** Sweetie, I thought exactly the same (picturing Ban and Iarra in a drinking game hehe). Did it plant a seed in your head? 'Cause I'm still holding you to your promise, you know. :D Don't take too long writing that epilogue, okie? Happy New Year!

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Please pray for the millions of victims of the Asian tidal wave. Let's hope next year will be a better one for all.

Drink and drive safe. Cheers and Happy New Year!


	4. Love

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **Never owned, never have, and never will. Never sue.

**A/N: **This is a long one. And coming from me, that means looong. I practically tortured myself writing this chappie with all its unabashed, unapologetic sentimentality and oh, I don't know, OOC-ness? You decide. You have been warned. ;) If you see my blood spatter on this page, sorry in advance. :D But I'd probably do it again someday, masochist that I am, hehe.

Yeah, riiiiight… Moving on….

Includes minor spoilers pertaining to recent manga events.

Read 'em and weep, folks. Thanks for tuning in.

---

**_IV. Love_**

It lay just on the western side of Shinjuku Station **(1)**, while Mugenjou crested over the top, but Natsumi's neighbourhood drew a sharp contrast to that of Ginji's old domain. Unlike the destitution and bleakness of the tower complex, the Skyscraper District was urbane, orderly and smelled of money and opulence. The only battles fought there were in its boardrooms; the class struggles going on only among consumer demographics.

In the many times that Ginji walked Natsumi home from the Honky Tonk, he tried imagining himself among the tie-and-suited salarymen hidden behind one of those high, fluorescent-lighted rows of windows – and just couldn't. However, he and Ban always attempted to peek into the big, richly appointed hi-rise apartments through binoculars, ostensibly to watch what lurid dramas went on within, but mostly so they could dream of living just as comfortably.

Ginji whined and griped and nagged all he wanted to Ban, for it was true, he _was_ sick and tired of sleeping in a car. He didn't envision living like that forever and made no secret about it to his partner either.

---

The Get Backer attempted to parallel park in front of Natsumi's building and almost succeeded, the left front wheel climbing onto the sidewalk before he cut the engine.

"Well, I suppose it's not too bad," Natsumi concluded as she let go of her tight grip on the shoulder strap of the seat belt. "At least you parked legally."

Ginji released the key from the ignition and shoved it into his vest pocket. "That's the one driving skill where I've got Ban-chan beat." Draping an arm around the top of the passenger seat, he leaned closer to the girl with a victorious sparkle in his eye. "Hee! So, I guess I get to have my cake, huh?"

"… and eat it, too," she continued for him and smiled back. "Chocolate fudge, is it?"

"Mm."

For some seconds, the young couple batted curious eyes at each other until Ginji noticed his relative nearness to his passenger. He drew back with his head slightly askew.

In the tense silence of the now still car, they internally took stock of what had happened so far and what should happen next. Ginji restlessly tapped the steering wheel while Natsumi practically strangled the teddy bear.

"Er…" she stammered and kept her eyes down on her lap. "Do you somehow have a funny feeling we've been, um… you know, Ban-san…" Her voice trailed off.

Ginji was too mush-headed to listen clearly. He furrowed his brow. "Huh?"

"Oh, nothing. Forget it," Natsumi murmured. She began to hook her fingers onto the latch of the door and pull. But then, she took a deep breath and jerked her head towards the blond bundle of nerves. "Do… do you want to come up for a while? I don't think you've seen where I live yet, have you?"

Ginji's grip wrapped vice-like around the wheel. The invite was unexpected. It came at him like a blindside punch to the jaw. He didn't think twice. He didn't think at all. "Okay," he whimpered and sat rooted to the driver's seat. The waitress blinked a few times and waited.

"Right." Ginji opened the door and stumbled out. He sucked in a long breath of humid air to keep himself from hyperventilating and thought deliriously, _What the heck is going on?_

"All right, settle down. You're just going to see her to the door, that's it," he spoke inaudibly to himself, circling around and holding the passenger door for Natsumi. As they climbed the stairs to the glass doors, the pair calmed down a bit. After all, this was just another first in a night of firsts. Nothing changed then, so why should things change now?

A middle-aged man in uniform swung the doors open for them. "Good evening, Miss Natsumi. Good evening, sir." He bowed in deference.

"Good evening, Saito-san. Is my father home yet?" Natsumi politely inquired.

"No, miss."

"Of course." The teenager shrugged and smiled thinly. "Before he goes up, could you please tell him I have dinner prepared so that he doesn't buy cup noodles from the vending machine again? Thanks."

"I'll do that," Saito promised. He glanced at the blond. "And you must be Ginji-san. Miss Natsumi raves so much about you. Sometimes I see you walk her to the steps but you never go in. I always wondered when she would finally bring you up. Tonight's the night, I see." He grinned knowingly.

"Oh, stop it." Natsumi lightly swatted the man's shoulder with her hand and blushed. "Can't you see you're embarrassing him?"

Saito put his palms up in mock surrender and stifled a laugh.

"Good night, _ojisan_." She smiled exasperatedly. As they walked on ahead, she apologized. "I'm sorry about that, Gin-chan. Really, he's just a sweet, harmless old snoopy."

"I don't mind," Ginji replied as he gaped in awe at the sleek marble walls and the large Italian chandelier in the lobby of the modernist style condominium. Natsumi led him to a bank of elevators and at the end of the corridor to the side was a smaller lift that required key-card access. She fished out a card from her bag and slid it into the slot.

"Why is this elevator different from the others?" he asked.

"It's a private elevator that leads to the penthouse suites."

"You live in a penthouse? Wow! I never knew that," Ginji exclaimed as he slapped a hand to his face.

Natsumi waved rapidly, knowing what her friend must've been assuming. "Oh no. My dad and I aren't that rich," she giggled. With a chime, the lift doors opened and she took out her card. "He usually gets good royalties from his scientific experiments, but really, it's no big deal."

The youngsters entered the mobile space. With its dark mahogany walls and thick red carpet, it almost looked like a house's foyer. As the doors slid closed before them, Natsumi said, "I had a very nice time at the festival, Gin-chan. I'm glad you guys took me along." She pressed the button to the thirty-second floor.

Ginji raked a hand through his disheveled blond hair. "I had a great time, too. But – but I was so stupid. We got lost in Mugenjou and I sucked at those games. I was supposed to win a prize for you, something you wanted. I… I forget what date it was, but I know your birthday is coming up soon–"

Natsumi's eyes softened with touched adoration. "You remembered?"

He nodded dejectedly, took out the tiny bag of candy and put it in her hand. " – and that's all I won. I'm such an idiot!" His heart raced with a mix of pent up frustration and irritation at himself.

"Shhh... It doesn't matter. I don't need a prize or a reward or anything. I had a lot of fun with you. You told me all about yourself. That's enough for me." Natsumi cupped Ginji's chin and looked him straight in the eye.

"Besides, even though I kept winning all those games and toys, the only thing I really wanted to win was – " She hesitated and bit her lip. Then, hopping once, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Surprised at her own audacity, the girl drew back and gasped, hand flying to her mouth. "What I mean is… thank you. Thank you for a splendid evening."

Ginji retreated as well, as if shocked by an electrical surge as great as his own. But something dormant that he never knew was in him awoke, made him feel sensations he never felt. Was this another side of Raitei that had never been unleashed? Or was it just him out of control?

His mind and instincts made no distinctions, however, lost as they were in the maddening whirl of emotions brought about by Natsumi's kiss, her gifts, and Ginji's guilt at not being able to give her something in return. _Think!_ He forced his brain into overdrive as he glanced up at the floor monitor. _She deserves more than this._

_23…_

_No, no! Wait! Too fast…_ His eyes darted around.

_24…_

_If I don't do something now I'll never…_ He bunched up his fists.

_25 …_

Suddenly, charged particles exploded from him like an atomic wind, shorting out the lights in the elevator and raising the static in the tiny space. Natsumi shrieked.

"Gin-chan! What's happening?"

_26…_

Ginji felt as if Raitei had assumed power over his body, but not his mind and not his heart. He was exhilaratingly aware of the two sides of himself goading each other to act; instinct versus reason, ego against id…

_27 …_

He searched desperately for a balance…

_28 … 29 …_

… and found it.

Ginji slammed his palm into the emergency stop button. _30…_

The elevator eased to a halt with a slight bump and small, orange stand-by tracklights switched on, lending an almost candlelight glow to the enclosure.

Even fate, it seemed, was setting the mood.

Natsumi backed into the wall slowly, wondering who this stranger was trapped in with her, or if he was a stranger at all; for curiously, she felt no fear of him, only that he would finally answer her question, and she, his.

Almost as though he were in a trance, Ginji took off one glove and stepped forward; the other glove, another step. He pushed those impediments into his pockets and reached out.

Natsumi stared daringly at the boy, no, man, who inched closer to her; he with the swept up golden hair, chiseled, resolute features, and the ethereal electric aura. She'd never seen anything so beautiful, so dangerous, and so bold that she doubted for a moment this was someone she had fallen in love with. But blinded by the sunrise in his soulful brown eyes, the young woman knew instantly a light like that could only come from one person.

Natsumi pressed against the wood, putting centimeters, millimeters between them; giving him seconds, milliseconds more to make sure he wanted to take her before she offered her complete surrender.

But the blond was never more sure. He gently placed one hand on the slope of her neck and shoulder and nestled her delicate face in the other. "I'm sorry, this is the only prize I…"

Bending his head down, he barely whispered her name, without the honorific, like one lover to another. "Natsumi …"

The girl braced herself for a shock, slowly closed her eyes and sighed. "Gin-_ji._"

He stole her last syllable with his lips.

His kiss was sensuous and searching, with a hint of awkwardness she found immensely endearing. And instead of the sharp jolt Natsumi expected, Ginji's fine touch was a warm, smooth current that flowed through her like water – luxuriant as a dip in a hot spring, comforting as a cashmere blanket on a winter's night. With a small involuntary moan, she leaned slightly into him.

The second Ginji's lips touched hers, the feverish, tumultuous impulses that impelled him to make a move disappeared. His face softened, the static haze dissipated, and his hair fluttered back into a messy mop. He knew he had lost all will and reason, but not losing them would've meant the elevator reaching the thirty-second floor, him waving goodbye at her door and going back to the Honky Tonk waiting to flirt another day… instead of this ecstatic thing which was nothing like he'd ever felt or done before. For the first time, Ginji was appreciative of that other part of him whom he kept imprisoned, locked away for his unharnessed rage. Ginji never thought he could exhibit such unbridled passion as well.

As Natsumi's head tilted forward to return his kiss, her long hair came loose from its fasteners and fell in a black cascade over his hands like a rain of silk threads. Reluctantly, they pulled away for air. Breathing heavily, Ginji and Natsumi stared at each other, the shy, crimson flushes on their faces belying the fiery, ravenous longing in their eyes. Taking it no longer, she snatched her gaze away to one side and with a trembling hand, felt her unbound hair.

"Oh! My hairpin! I can't lose it. It was my mother's…" Natsumi fretted absurdly, delirious in the fervor of their dalliance. She dropped to her knees and felt around the carpet.

Ginji leered at her in the semi-darkness. The dim incandescence highlighted the shadows strewn by the lashes of her downcast eyes, illuminated her porcelain skin and caught the glints in her shiny hair as they whisked frantically across her face and draped over her shoulders in flowing waves.

He had seen his share of women in various states of undress – a totally naked Hevn, allies and foes stripped to rags in battle – some of them even trying to seduce him. But Ginji had never found anything more alluring, provocative or seductive to him than this fully-clothed girl on her knees with waist-length tresses hanging wild and free.

The Get Backer got down before Natsumi and used his internal magnetism to attract the metal of the hair ornament. Reaching behind her and within the folds of her _yukata_, Ginji brought out the pin and curled her fingers around it. She smiled at him gratefully.

He swept the curtain of wisps veiling her from his fascinated devourment. "I didn't answer your question, did I?"

"Hmm?"

"At the garden you asked if you could see me for who I was."

"And did I?"

Ginji nodded. "You're the only person aside from Ban-chan who can see who I am and who I can become. Will… will you help me be that person, Natsumi-chan? Because I think… I… think…" He had the words, but –

Natsumi's large, hopeful dark eyes waited as they scanned his, yet with each blink it seemed some of their luster was lost. Without knowing why, her tears welled up as she finally replied, "Yes, of course I'll help you." Dropping the teddy bear and everything else, she enveloped him in her arms, holding dearly as if to keep him back from an invisible rival pulling with the force of the Snake Bite. Nuzzling her cheek on his shoulder, Natsumi capitulated. "If you want my heart, it's yours."

Ginji purred huskily through the cloak of hair and into her ear. "And I think you're stealing mine."

The high school girl glanced up at the boy, stunned more by his admission than she ever would by his lightning. Mouth slightly open, she gasped at the irony. _Stealing from a Get Backer... imagine that._

"You know, I keep saying how cute you are." Ginji smiled timidly. With a feather-light finger, he traced the supple curve of her jaw where it met the smooth column of her neck, at which Natsumi swung her head away with a shudder and a pliant sigh. "But I've always thought you were so lovely, inside and out. That's why it's so easy for me –" He stopped.

His finger glided over to the other side of her face and turned it back towards him.

"Easy?" Natsumi breathed, heavy lids damming up the flood in her eyes.

Ginji caught her parted lips between his while they embraced, their fused bodies creating a single silhouette against the pale orange radiance as they felt each other's heart pound and heat rush through their clothes. Their kiss was deeper now, more urgent – primal. It was as though for lack of words between them that spoke of a confession, Ginji and Natsumi let their actions do the talking.

Except…

_It's not supposed to be this way,_ Natsumi thought sadly. Her fingers on one hand tangled into Ginji's ruffled spikes of hair. How could doing something so pleasing feel so wrong?

"_Remember, Natsumi… If someone takes something important from you, then be sure to take it back…"_

The Get Backer's hand wandered onto the large apple-green bow that held Natsumi's _yukata_ together. She could almost imagine him pulling deliberately at the bow's tails and undoing it. _Almost…_

"…_Anything worth having is worth someone else stealing… It's how it is and it's how it'll always be…"_

Paul's words were beginning to hit the girl hard. There was no doubt in her that Ginji was worth having. She'd known that the moment she met him. Now that he was in her arms, Natsumi apprehensively wondered whether she was actually stealing him away. Stealing a person's heart wasn't a crime when it didn't belong to someone else, right? And Ginji's was free…

Strange that the closer he got, the less certain she became.

"… _the thing that truly bonds us with one another is the fact that we've all lost things we'll never recover."_ **(2)**

And the boy didn't help Natsumi out of her qualms any as they continued to have their way with each other. She need not have stolen pieces of him – his kisses, his time, his honesty. Those, Ginji had given her freely. But would he be so free with the things she wanted from him the most - his love, his happiness… his future?

Suddenly, she realized he had answered her questions all along. Her whole body went rigid and numb as she could feel whispers, faces, truths, swirling around Ginji like misty wraiths, grappling tendril fingers into his heart and prying him away from her. His voice resounded clearly in her head.

"… _It was Ban-chan who saved my life… He and I lost so much… We had nothing… But being with someone doesn't cost a thing… We became friends… We were happy…"_

"_For that alone, I owe him everything."_

"_Everything…"_ The teenage girl quivered, shutting her eyes tight against the torrent of tears. _No. No. This can't be – fair._

Submitting to the heaviness of her heartbreak, Natsumi collapsed weightlessly into Ginji's hug. Her swoon unintentionally brought him on top of her petite frame. She waited, and waited, and yet, his ardor refused to wane. But she neither had the heart nor the will to stop or push him away. _Just one more minute…_ she decided. Even Ban could give her that at least. Natsumi's inquisitive, sensual hands meandered over the thin, white shirt on his torso; mapped each ripple of muscle on his back, each strong curve of his shoulders and the smooth contours of a broad chest. With her rapturous kiss, she memorized the tender pillows of his cupid's bow mouth, his sweet taste…

For this Natsumi did in the precious seconds allowed to her; trying to sear all of him into her memory here in this freak wrinkle of space and time; inside the cramped, dark, sweltering, elevator where for a brief crazy/wonderful moment, the only thing that mattered was the two of them, alone in a romance…

… she knew wouldn't last.

Choking on the lump in her throat she could swear was her heart, Natsumi cried.

Ginji had been surprised by the torrid desperation in the high school student's movements, feeling strangely as though their act signaled not a beginning, but an end. And then he sensed a stream of tears pool between their hot cheeks. With alarm, he finally broke free, the air instantly cooling the burn on their bruised lips.

"My God, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you, Natsumi-chan? I've done something wrong, haven't I?" Ginji's eyes grew wide with extreme remorse and concern as he wiped her tears with his thumb.

She shook her head feebly, her gaze now far away. "No, Gin-chan. Nothing you've done is wrong." _You've been perfect._ "It's me. It's my fault. I shouldn't have – led you on like that. I'm the one who should say sorry." The inconsolable teen sat up and wedged herself into the corner of the elevator.

"What are you saying? Lead me - ? But, I wanted to…" Ginji stammered, puzzled as to why Natsumi was now trying to put some distance between them. True, he didn't regret any of the things they did, and could even believe he was ready to go as far as she would let him. Not that she would. But still… _why?_

Natsumi hushed him with a finger to his lips, remembering bittersweetly how they had ravished hers just seconds previously. "I was a fool to make a wish on that heaven lantern, to even think it was possible for it to come true so soon. I was being selfish."

"Natsumi-chan! I don't understand. How can you call yourself selfish?"

"I am. Because…" The tears drizzled steadily, trickling past her cheeks and onto her dress. ".. because I love you."

She paused and swallowed hard, cradling her head on drawn up knees mantled by her curtain of hair. "But you have so much love to give to everybody. And I suppose I'm just one of them. I was naïve to hope that you could single me out to love a little bit more… to choose me as the only person to make you happy when… when _someone else already has_."

Ginji knelt in front of Natsumi and blinked. Three small words that had never been uttered to him in his life and he didn't know what to say.

She expounded with a pained smile. "It's funny. All those times you were ranting about not having any luck with girls and we'd all laugh at you. In truth, I stood behind that counter secretly wishing you'd see something in me because I would've gone out with you – if only you'd asked. But you never did, and that was okay. I used to think it was because I'm nothing but a plain, stick-figured waitress…"

"Natsumi-chan, that's not - !" His eyes began to glass over. Ginji gnashed his teeth in anger over what he perceived was his insensitivity. _Bastard! You've hurt her enough!_ A voice growled inside his head and forks of current flared randomly from his body in thorny, swift spikes.

"Stop it. It's all right." Without any regard for her safety, the crying girl lunged and threw her arms around his neck to comfort him. The electricity prickled through Natsumi's clothes and onto her skin, making her wince, but immediately, her caress soothed the savage beast within him.

"The thing is, I now realize it didn't matter to you whether or not you had any luck with girls, did it? You were happy just the way things are," she continued as Ginji buried his face in her raven hair. "I don't know if you'll ever need someone like me as much as you need him – or as much as he needs you. Because I can't run to you like the wind whenever you're in trouble; because I'll never fully understand the tragedies the both of you share and endure; and because I think you and Ban-san are actually one and the same soul separated into two beings. Yours is a bond that's unbreakable."

"I, on the other hand, am just a simple girl who can only give coffee and sandwiches and play games with you. Playing games. Yeah. That's all I'm good for."

Ginji shook his head stubbornly. Yet, he was deafened by the stunning truths that drilled into his psyche, truths so piercingly loud he knew Ban could hear them as well.

"I feel you two have a special destiny to fulfill. I won't get in the way of that." Natsumi held Ginji's face in her palms, their sadness swimming in each other's large, flooded eyes. She wanted to kiss him, possess him so badly that she felt faint from the heartache of her choice. "Regardless of what we did or what it means for us, we… we just can't… not now."

The young woman futilely wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Giving him a fleeting kiss on the forehead, she pulled away and started collecting her things.

Natsumi had invited Ginji up to see if there could be the tiniest hint of something between them. She never expected to confuse him – or herself – with thoughts of a possible future for them when his turbulent, violent past and present had yet to be resolved. The high school student didn't care about her own feelings at all. She swore to be there for him, love him, even if it hurt her to do so. But she knew she could never put herself in a position where her presence in Ginji's life could cause him harm or alter the course of his fate.

Natsumi remembered Teshimine Takeru telling her that he no longer needed to be a part of Ginji's life when the boy had already found the perfect partner. She agreed. Like Teshimine, she would trust Mido Ban to take care of Ginji for her. And like him, she would walk away and – let go.

Releasing the emergency stop button, Natsumi stood up and in a few seconds, the elevator opened on the thirty-second floor. She stepped onto the plush beige carpet of the softly-lit corridor with its textile-covered walls and framed ink drawings daring not to look back if Ginji followed her.

But he did, staggering after her as she virtually ran from him. Ginji desperately wanted to tell her what she thought of herself wasn't true, that he saw her as more than a girl who believed in him and bought him food; how he thought he could've sworn he glimpsed his tomorrow in her eyes. Natsumi, the angelic vision in his dream who was his beautiful bride, to whom he'd lose his innocence and make mad, passionate love to; and who would give him the family he never had and been waiting for all his life.

A family. Something, the only thing, he would truly call his own.

But how could he tell her all that? He wasn't even sure if those were genuine premonitions or fanciful delusions projected by his newly-awakened libido. _No._ It couldn't merely be physical attraction. He cared way too much for Natsumi to be so shallow. What these feelings were Ginji had to be certain. If that was what people called 'love' then why was he compelled to hold back? And why was Natsumi's confession filled with so much grief? Love wasn't supposed to be that way, right?

And surely, it wasn't simply about… Ban. Or was it?

Ginji tore at his hair in befuddlement as he chased after the fleeing girl in her nimble footsteps towards a set of doors at the end of the hall. How cruel a jester fate was to allow him to touch a fragment of his future, let him taste how exquisite it was, only to see it, her, slipping away from his grasp like a withering apparition of whipping black tresses, rustling fabric, and a trail of smoldering memories.

Natsumi arrived at the beechwood double doors of her unit nervously and hurriedly fumbling through her bag for house keys. It was as if she needed to race against time and vanish behind the panels before Ginji appeared.

"Keys, keys… where are you?" she muttered frenziedly. Just as she fished out her keys and began pushing and turning them into their tumblers, the Get Backer shadowed her. His lurking caused Natsumi to tremble with a peculiar sensation, a combination of dread and an illicit thrill. If she weren't so distraught she knew she'd be playing romance novel scenarios in her mind – that the minute those doors swung open Ginji would sweep her off her feet, carry her in his arms and…

Shaking her head virulently, Natsumi stymied those ridiculous thoughts.

Ginji caught up with her at the doors, watching as she mumbled to herself quietly and fidgeted with the locks, quivering as she did. All he wanted was to wrap his arms around her to calm the cataclysms she must've been undergoing. Instead, he reached out his hand and barely stroked the satin of her straight hair, being the last thing he would probably touch before he lost her behind the walls. For the night? For the meantime? Forever?

The doors creaked open and Natsumi stepped inside the sprawling, stylishly modern open plan flat with its minimalist interior and flattering mood lights.

Ginji stepped back and gasped as he had a whole city before him. He stared at Natsumi's profile as she stood melancholic against the grand vista of Tokyo's gaily illuminated electric skyline; a rude, garish frivolity on the heartbroken girl afforded by the apartment's floor-to-ceiling windows. Now, he noticed just how far removed she was from his own life and upbringing. Natsumi's was upper middle-class, comfortable, and genteel. Her home didn't even have a view of the monster that was Mugenjou.

Natsumi turned, detecting Ginji's self-consciousness. "So, this is where I live."

"It's… it's… wow," he said, keeping his distance from the threshold of that seemingly prohibitive space.

She nodded lamely. "It's kind of, empty, though." Snubbing the cool luxury around her, Natsumi moved back towards the door and went rhapsodic. "That's why I spend so much time at the Honky Tonk, I guess. I love my _otosan_ dearly, I do. But…" She almost cracked a smile.

"… I'm an only child and you guys are a big extended family to me. Master is like a second father. Rena-chan and Hevn-san are my little and big sisters, and everyone else are like close cousins who drop by every now and then. Ban-san… He's the older brother I've always wanted, someone who I worship and idolize because he'll always be perfect despite his many faults." Natsumi's gloom lifted briefly at seeing Ban's cocky, pervasive grin in her imagination. Then, her gaze sank to the floor.

"And you, Gin-chan, you…" She had no words profound enough for what he meant to her. Feeling the tears rising again, the high school student mused, "Isn't it strange how the Honky Tonk brings all of you together? Somehow, you, Ban-san, Master, Hevn, Himiko-san, the Volts and even Doctor Jackal are connected in ways I can't understand; and that it's not coincidence how everything fits and happens like it was meant to be. It's as though that café is a magic portal where everyone who passes through its doors is fated to help the others take one step closer to their destiny. And that's their reason for being there."

Natsumi embraced the teddy bear close to her. "But it seems I'm the only one whose presence there is an accident since I don't belong in the scheme of things. I mean, even for Rena-chan, the Honky Tonk is a second chance at life. But me, why am I there other than to serve coffee and greet customers? What reason is there for me? Whose destiny am I supposed to affect?"

Ginji's hand defiantly trespassed into the boundary between him and the sanctuary of Natsumi's ivory tower, then let it drop at the unfair paradox of it all.

Bowing his head and balling his fists, Ginji scolded himself for not making the connection sooner. Paul, the Honky Tonk, the puzzle. It was Paul who had recruited him and Ban to be the next batch of Get Backers; it was he who had told them to complete the puzzle to get the answers to their questions; and he even brought in a cute waitress their age into the Honky Tonk even though the rinky-dink bar hardly needed one.

What was her purpose indeed?

It struck him that Natsumi had been one of the pieces of the puzzle the Get Backers had neglected and set aside, not knowing where to fit her in exactly. But now that the fragments were coming together and the jigsaw was taking shape, Ginji held her piece in his hands. And still, he couldn't find where to place her. Where? How? So many gaps yet to fill…

Ginji's heart cried out in anguish. Maybe he didn't have a choice. Maybe he was meant to save Natsumi for last. Maybe it was she who would complete his part of the puzzle, complete the picture, complete him.

And everything would finally make sense.

The boy raised his head up and opened his eyes. A tear rolled down his cheek from the velvet depths of his soul, twinkling a blue-green spark like a crystal vial holding a tiny lightning storm within its liquid walls. "Natsumi-chan, you're not an accident," Ginji choked. "Your reason, the destiny you hold is – mine. Because I think… " He paused and gulped. "No, _I know_ I've fallen –"

"Don't." The young woman flew at him and shook her head. She rendered a flimsy, wounded smile. "Please don't say it. If and when the time comes for you to say those words it won't be like this, with you miserable and with tears in your eyes. Instead, you'll see a whole spectrum of colours exploding into your view, making you feel full of your most favourite things in the world; and you'll be laughing and singing and dancing as though nothing bad will ever happen again. That's when you'll truly be in love."

Natsumi enlaced her fingers with Ginji's. "I should know because something like that happened to me once."

"It did?" Ginji sniffled and cocked his head to the side.

"Yes, while watching out the Honky Tonk window one rainy night," she recounted. "That's when I spotted two handsome boys under umbrellas coming towards the shop. Instantly, my heart was on a mission. Waving, I went out to greet them, waiting breathlessly as to which of the two would wave back and come out of the rain first. Then, the blond holding the bag of groceries came forward and returned my gesture with a smile as wide and bright as a ray of sunshine. And I knew at once he was the one."

"That… that was the night you made me a thief." The waitress coddled her forehead onto Ginji's chest and wept in retrospect.

"But now I must return what I've stolen because so many people depend on you – the Get Backers – to be at the center of their fates. They need you, Ban-san needs you, and you need them. Your heart belongs to everybody right now. I was wrong to want it for myself. _Need_ will always outweigh _want_."

Natsumi kissed away the tear from his face. If she couldn't have him she would settle for an evanescent flicker of his celestial light as a minuscule token.

"So this is what it feels like to be a thief. I don't understand at all why people steal, for how can there be joy in possessing something that's not yours?" She sighed and ruefully pressed her palm to Ginji's heart as though to lodge it back into its proper place. "Just remember, Gin-chan. Never let anyone snatch your heart from you because it's a most painful thing to get back…"

"… but give your heart freely to a person who'll cherish it and no one will ever succeed in taking it away. No one will be hurt."

Mutely, he nodded, astounded at how sensible Natsumi suddenly seemed in her sacrifice. She bowed her head in response, turned and proceeded to retreat into the suite. But he gently grabbed her wrist. "Natsumi-chan…"

She froze and held her breath. In anxious secrecy she prayed. _A sign. Please, no matter how silly… Give me a reason to hope._

The blond encircled his arms around her waist and nested her body into his, just as he had envisioned them doing in his dream. Maybe re-enacting it could someday make it come true. Silly things.

"If I came out of the rain again, would you still wait?" he whispered over the fragrant sable spill of her hair.

With a hand gliding over her mouth, a surprised whimper escaped from Natsumi's throat. She thought she could see a silver glimmer peek through her cloud of sorrow. _That'll do. _Bobbing her head briskly, she answered softly. "Yes. I would."

Just as they'd stood beneath the beams of the shrine's _torii_ to mark passage into their evening, Ginji and Natsumi idly cuddled under the frame of her doorway to bid farewell to their night. The young man foresaw a night he wouldn't forget but didn't expect the overwhelming changes it brought. He realized he matured considerably those past few hours, more than he had in years; saw Natsumi transform from cute school girl to captivating woman right before his very eyes. And for the first time in his life, the Chosen Child of Mugenjou - who was never allowed to grow up - finally felt he had become an adult…

… who could also feel a whole new set of desires, heartaches and dilemmas that came with being one.

The minutes passed and unwillingly, Natsumi wrested herself from Ginji's clinch. "You should go home now. He must be worried sick waiting for you." The dulcet lilt in her voice floated like a ghost to his ears as she breezed into her house, hastily breaking away lest her resolve to relinquish him fail and everyone else be damned.

"Drive carefully, okay? I'll see you soon…" She added with a pained, half-hearted laugh. "… with that cake I promised."

Ginji stared while the doors gradually swung closed, leaving him with the faint echo of Natsumi's quiet _'Good night'_ and the gravity in the abyss of her large, misted sloe eyes.

With the doors' bolts clicking into their jambs behind her, Natsumi, at last, gave in to the pent up silent screams that roiled in her heart and sobbed deeply. Buckling unto the floor, she blanketed the toy bear in her sleeved arms, a substitute for the beloved she had to let go; and stifled her cries with its warm cushion. Hand drifting over the wooden barriers, she tried to feel for the residual magnetic aura that emanated from outside. _Spare some light for me someday, Ginji._

It was the hardest thing Natsumi had to do, giving him up. But she vowed to fulfill her role at the Honky Tonk and continue to see the Get Backers through their days with her customary cheer and generosity. She'd put on a brave face in having Ginji so near while loving him from afar, if only to help him until the time he found the answers he was looking for. And after that, then – maybe then – he would look for _her_…

… like a firefly flashing to his betrothed, waiting in the tall grass to signal back, waiting for him to come.

And wait, Natsumi could… even if it took forever.

---

"Good night," Ginji murmured imperceptively as the doors were shut in front of him. And like that, the affair came to an end. But his body tried to draw out every last impulse and sensation from it, with fingers unconsciously grazing his lips in lieu of the cottony puff of Natsumi's tiny rosebud mouth achingly missing from his. He could only imagine how just as soft and delicate the rest of her must feel like.

Then Ginji heard the muffled sobs wafting from the barricade she locked herself behind and its haunting resonance shattered his physical memory of her. Abruptly he was left with only a harrowing guilt and a contrite admission of his own self-indulgence.

The Get Backer knelt and pressed his ear to the door, scourging himself further by listening to the sound of the girl's heartbreak. His hand traveled the surface of the panel in perception of her reaching out for him and wished he could break Natsumi free from those cold walls and say he didn't care about anything or anyone more than her.

Then again, they both knew that would've been a lie. And Ginji could never lie to anyone but himself.

He stayed huddled to the wood until he picked up the padded shuffle of Natsumi's footsteps as she walked away from the door. He felt a heightened sensibility of her since they shared that closeness; could almost predict how she'd change her clothes, cook a late dinner for her father, and then slide under the covers of her bed, hug her teddy bear, and cry again until the spent tears lulled her to sleep.

Charmingly typical of her to always put the needs of others before her own, Ginji thought and smiled sadly. He then realized he had been the same.

An ironic twist it was that in their magnanimity for other people, he and Natsumi ended up denying themselves each other.

Ginji trudged down the corridor to the elevator ruminating about how he was going to possibly hang out at the Honky Tonk and make believe he and the waitress could go back to the way things used to be; to honestly call her just a friend when they'd already kissed just like lovers; or how he would be able to stand watching Natsumi do her chores behind that symbolic barrier of a counter without yearning for more of what he had of her.

The lift opened and Ginji re-entered this niche which warped his whole world. It felt claustrophobic now that he was alone in its dark, tepid cocoon, but with Natsumi – he had, for a brief moment, been suspended in a utopia thirty floors above all his troubles and two floors below the safety of her home; trapped, hanging in delectable suspense, being neither here nor there but just together.

However, theirs was merely a romance in transit. Now that Natsumi was secure up in her tower, Ginji, meanwhile, would have to descend back to his underworld with its mean streets and even meaner villains; a battlefield where he'd died a dozen figurative – and literal – deaths; a hell that continued to transform him into a wrathful, uncontrollable demon.

Ginji's world was no place for a girl like her. He'd seen first-hand what it had done to Shido and Madoka, who dared to love despite the peril and turmoil. They, and their love, survived. But at what cost?

He pushed the button for the ground level and forlornly leaned his forehead into the wood paneling. As the elevator began its fast fall, Ginji finally understood the wisdom of Natsumi's choice and the hammering acuity of his instincts.

He could not – would not – bring the innocent Natsumi down with him.

Glancing onto the floor, Ginji espied the small bag of candy he gave her which she had inadvertently left behind. Tears brimming under his lids, the Get Backer picked it up, crushed it in his grip and forced a sob back into his lungs.

"A sign," Ginji muttered into the wall, thinking how monumentally foolish he was for believing he could offer a part of himself to Natsumi when she deserved nothing less than all of him, pure and undamaged – if she deserved him at all.

For he understood it wasn't the time for him to be her prize, nor she, him; not until he won the fight for his own life first.

If only doing what was best didn't have to make them feel worse.

---

The elevator slid ajar and Ginji blinked, due in part to the glare of the lobby lights streaming into the darkened enclosure, but mostly to rein in the tide in his huge brown eyes. He pushed himself to walk to the building's exit casually while concealing the distress in his features. He'd rather not have the curious doorman presume he'd done anything other than bring Natsumi to her apartment.

If Saito-san suspected something, he had been very neutral about it as he politely tipped his hat and held open the door. The blond responded with a weak smile before plodding down the steps to the car. Ginji inhaled a deep breath of the heavy, cooling air, sensing dense clouds that were gathering over the city and obscuring the sparkle of the many stars that showed up that night. Sitting in the fateful seat where one harmless 'okay' had started a domino effect of changes, he tried to decide whether or not he regretted accepting Natsumi's invitation to go up with her.

Honestly, he didn't know.

Ginji hardly took the Ladybug out of first gear as he drove aimlessly through the district's sedate, sparsely trafficked streets. Shinjuku's rainbow of flashing lights passed him by in a kaleidoscopic daze, colours blurring into each other through the prisms of his glassy eyes.

" – _go home…"_ Natsumi had told him. Go home where? Ginji thought as he and the car wandered inside the winding steel and concrete jungle. He made turn after turn, finally reaching a corner from where Mugenjou reared itself again from beyond a sentry of skyscrapers; an unwelcome kibitzer beckoned by the grief of its favourite son.

_Lost, are we? Why, you've always had a home right here… but you ran away…_

The former Thunder Emperor braked on a red light at the apex of an avenue that led straight into the pits of his 'home'. Mugenjou loomed imposingly large and menacing in the crossroads, staring down, standing off with its reluctant ruler.

_The castle is yours. Take it with your full power and make the hurt disappear._

_No,_ Ginji defiantly resolved. He'd sooner become a vagrant before returning to that prison; would much rather feel the pain than to feel nothing at all; and would endure the sorrow if it paved the way to complete happiness.

_Then why haven't you escaped? Break free, abandon the past and present, run away with her… chase your future…_

But how could he when his future depended on finding the answers provided by that unknown past? How could he leave without solving the puzzle? How could he leave without… Ban?

"_He must be worried sick waiting for you."_

The light turned green and Ginji sat stone-cold at the wheel, focusing not on the road but on the angry welts gouged in the steering's leather by his partner's errant moods. Suddenly, his simple mind figured out why he was put in that driver's seat making this symbolic journey.

Maybe that was Ban's intention all along, for Ginji to lose himself in order to find himself.

"Ban-chan…" he sighed lightly as irate motorists honked their horns and overtook the stalled car. The Get Backer felt like he was baited into the snare of a Catch-22; jerked around helplessly in the middle of a reverse tug-of-war with his best friend and best 'girl' friend on opposite sides, pushing him away; each believing Ginji should choose the other. And then there was the Infinite Castle, ready to enfold him should he choose neither.

But Ginji knew he already made his choice, made long ago before Natsumi was even a glimmer in his fantasies, on the day he left Mugenjou behind. The day his whole life changed.

The traffic lights switched to red again and the blaring of horns stopped, replaced now with the increasing rhythmic patter of raindrops beating sporadically on the cars, building roofs, and the pavement. That night, the weather defied all forecasts as Tokyo saw its first thunderstorm of the summer.

_Why, Ban-chan? Why did you have to do this to us?_ Ginji hunched over the steering wheel and finally let the sobs wrack his body. _Why must everything change again?_

The dark sky commiserated by slowly closing over the droopy eye of the moon and weeping with him.

---

_(to be continued)_

---

**(1) Shinjuku Station -** the world's busiest train station; somewhat divides the uptown business districts from the seedier ones like the red-light Kabuki-cho (where I assume the Honky Tonk is located near hehe)

**(2)** Aoki, Yuya, and Ayamine, Rando. _GetBackers Vol. 2._ Los Angeles: Tokyopop, 2004

**A/N2 : **Ooh. First time I used footnotes again since university, which was in… ehehe. :D OOC much, wasn't it? Did I forget to mention angsty? I am so going to purgatory for turning the series' cutest, cheeriest characters into gush buckets. And Natsumi has more lines here than in the anime and manga combined! Okay. I'm a heretic. You can tell me. :D Anyway, I promise the last chapter is much shorter. Hope you liked this installment nevertheless. Oh, and the chapter title 'Love' refers to the tennis term for 'zero' – which is kind of fitting, don't you think? Geez, I'm so evil. XD

**_Endless _: **Glad I made your day. Hope I didn't spoil it with this chapter /cringe/. Thanks for the props!

**_hikari :_ **Thanks! That's so sweet of you. I hope to post the last chapter soon since it's shorter than the rest. Cheers!

**_Rabid Lola :_ **Well, it started slow, then went fast (teenagers and raging hormones, 'ya know?), but it in the end… _'basta'_ (Whee! I'm learning so many Filipino words to add to my vocabulary of Tagalog cusses. Yeah, my Filipino friends are evil like me hehe).

The titles of the chaps refer to tennis terms and not to table tennis which, I admit, should be more suitable to Natsumi. But where else can you find the word 'Love' used so ironically? Wanna hazard a guess as to what the last chapter's title will be:D

Limelie's a darling, I agree. :)

I can't wait for your RaiteixNatsumi fic! Also, I won't pester you again to hurry with "The Promise" update. /wink/

**_limelie _: **Thanks! I'll be waiting for that. In this chapter, apparently Ginji – and Natsumi – sort of know what they're doing - kinda raunchy, kinda sweet, but definitely nothing past first base. Ginji needs his sugar, you know haha. Em, yeah.… Hope you liked this installment!

**_Ban Midou :_** Don't worry. I'm not about to hurt the Ladybug after I obliterated her in my last fic hehe. She's suffered enough. Thanks for the R &R.

**_machanbanlover :_** Thanks for reading! I'm updating as fast as I can so you don't have scrape your pretty little knees by begging. :D

**_bc :_** This chap was longer, is that okay:D Matchmaker Ban did a VERY unselfish thing and let Ginji drive HIS car so he could spend more time with Natsumi – which is sort of like giving car keys to a blind man hehe. Naturally, can you blame Ban for going crazy with worry?

Actually, now that I think of it, I could've ended the fic at Chapter 3, but I wanted conflict, darn it:D

The English-translated manga is only at Vol. 6, so I also know how you feel. But the better fics on FF give you a pretty good idea of what goes on in the manga anyway so you're not at a total loss. Thanks for the R &R. Hope you liked this chapter.


	5. Deuce

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **An open letter to Ayamine-sensei and Aoki –sensei. Dear "GetBackers" creators, since the very start of your most excellent series Paul and Natsumi have always been 'just there'. But now it turns out that Paul is actually a big part of this whole thing, that leaves just Natsumi as the only main-ish GB character never to have been heavily involved in a major story arc. Is it, therefore, too much too ask before this series is over she gets to do something more than just comment that lightning has struck Mugenjou (again)? Please? Or else I'll be forced to write more Natsumi-centric fics. And you really don't want to sue me for that. Hehe. _Sincerely, Atropos' Knife._

**A/N: **Who knew two straight weeks of rain could fizzle out your laptop? I didn't realize these things had to come with a dehumidifier or something. Oh well. Now I can get a 12" 1.5GHz PowerBook. It's so cute and powerful! Like the tare-Ginji of portables! (sigh. I wish…) Forgive my loquacity. Three straight weeks of limited computer usage will do that to me.

Sorry if I made some of you guys cry with the last chapter. It was kind of the point, hehe. Angsty GinjiNatsumi fluff – that's the experiment. Did I say this chapter is shorter than the others? Well, it's not. I really should quit making promises like that. Turns out this one is full of semi-stream-of-consciousness, metaphysical psycho-drivel that can only come from the POV of the likes of Ban - and me, apparently. (BAM! Sound of me hitting the floor after Freudian slip). Hope it's not too tedious (considering the length, though, it probably is. Ick! ). Anyway, thanks for tuning in. I'm not the easiest author to digest so it really makes my day to know folks take time to read and review. You guys are awesome!

Enjoy!

-

**_V. Deuce_**

Ban waited for lightning to strike.

_One… two… three… four…_ Sharp crack of thunder. He flinched slightly. _Two kilometers._ The Get Backer counted the seconds between the blue-tinted white fire burning the low clouds in the horizon and the roaring thunderclap that followed. He sensed the storm front rolling his way.

But the rain had already begun to fall in steel gray sheets around him. Ban sat calmly slumped on the shrine bench with his arms thrown wide across the backrest and his legs stretched out in front of him in a prostrate posture that eerily resembled one submitting to crucifixion. His cigarette dangled uneasily from his lips, long after the downpour extinguished its embers and turned it into a soggy pulp in his mouth. Meanwhile, one by one, the stiff mahogany spikes of Ban's hair slowly lapped up water and started to plaster on his cheeks and forehead like dark slashes of ribbon.

He jerked his head back and let the tiny fists of rain jab his face and body, bothering not to search for shelter from the assault – or the onslaught that was to come. For there was nowhere safe to hide, no place insulated enough to run to, when a storm had been stirred, not by nature, but by _him_.

The lightning would find Ban one way or another.

_One… two…_ A bang as loud as a gun fired next to the ear. A kilometer away, a white car raced the charged clouds. Ban thought absurdly how it was a great shame Ginji was not as directionally adept as his alter ego.

He knew the exact reasons for his partner's frantic need for speed, having felt his own heart grow heavy even before hearing the blond woefully cry out his name. It was Ginji's voice that called, but it was his twin coming after him – childishly petulant and boiling over with anger, looking for retribution to purge the pain. Yet he would submit himself to Ginji / Raitei's ire once again if only to follow through on this phase of change. For Ban had underestimated Natsumi's unselfishness and the depth of Ginji's feelings for her; he was willing to suffer the consequences for this oversight because, in the end, he accomplished what he had set out to do… even if the young couple got hurt in the meantime.

He knew he wasn't entirely blameless in this matter.

But for the unreasonable Raitei, two people hurt was two people too many, so somebody would have to pay. And that somebody was Ban.

How he despised Raitei, that vaguely human suit of armour and self-proclaimed protector of his best friend who always ended up harming him the most. How could that mindless jumble of negative electrical impulses and pure instinct ever understand that this hurt was proof Ginji was truly alive; that together with the pain, he was capable of feeling pleasure; for every tear he shed came a hundred smiles after; and with patience came a payoff. Damn him for never seeing the positive side.

Ban begrudgingly acknowledged Raitei's influence while inside that hellish quagmire of Mugenjou. But how dare he impose its spartan rules on Ginji who finally had a chance to forge a life of his own now that he was free in the outside world.

_Jealous much, aren't you, you son of a bitch._ Ban seethed inside. _Can't accept the fact the twerp is relying less and less on you? And I'm the bad guy – again?_

Branches of white-green lightning snaked horizontally from cloud to cloud like a crown of thorns above his head. The crash of thunder faded into a low rumble, whence the dark-haired Get Backer could hear the grinding whirr of the Ladybug's engine screaming closer.

Ban stood up in the pouring rain and stared at the entrance of the parking lot. Then, from out of nowhere, the 360 made a hard turn from the street and barreled straight toward him on all gears, brakes screeching and pools of water splashing as it climbed the sidewalk and up the grassy embankment before rolling back and settling on the flat pavement with a rattle and hum.

Ban's expression remained stoic as his car stopped just a few feet away from him. Unfazed and unafraid, he barely moved an inch.

The Thunder Emperor got out of the car and slammed the door, panting heavily as the storm pelted him in an effort to cool his fury. Or rather, goading him into battle to the beat of a million raindrop war drums. His brows were knitted and fire raged in his tear-stained cheeks. Instead of the warm sunrise Natsumi had seen in Ginji's gaze, Ban could only see supernovas, exploding with the inferno of a thousand suns.

He matched this creature's – his enemy's – narrow glare with his own and remembered the last time he had gone face-to-face alone with Raitei. Ban could replay to the very frame how that golden, majestic vision gracefully flew down from his dais of rubble like an angel with devil's eyes and wings of green lightning; and he with the mighty hand wielding the cosmic magic of the stars. He would never forget what he saw in Raitei's terrible, empty eyes; wouldn't forget what feelings of imminent triumph it brought him.

For within the almighty emperor, Ban saw _fear._ Not of physical defeat, but of the reality that the child of darkness would succeed in stealing the light, taking it away forever from Mugenjou and its limitless wellsprings of power.

And it was that fear which defeated Raitei, the same fear he was now using to seek vengeance on Ban; this time, for taking him away from Natsumi.

The brunette flippantly spat out the mushy cigarette from his mouth and dug his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

Ginji / Raitei bounded at his partner with clenched fists, and with his right hand, took a swing at Ban's face.

"You set us up! Why?" he shouted as knuckles hit a tenaciously set jaw.

Ban's head jerked violently to the side, but he managed to keep his balance. Inside the pockets, nails began to cut into his palms. He re-fixed an icy blue stare at the amber blaze.

"We were all fine before. And now everything's changed!"

"This is all ..." Push.

"... your..." Shove.

"… fault!"

A left hook slam to the Jagan master's cheek connected just as another boom of thunder howled. Violet glasses went sailing, landing on the cement with a loud clink.

An almost inhuman grunt frothed from the pit of Ban's throat as he fiercely whipped his head back to the front. In doing so, droplets of water rocketed from his spikes of hair and struck the blond in the face like a barrage of bullets.

Raitei gnashed his teeth as he wiped the sting out of his cheeks and eyes while Ban continued to aim laser slivers at him, the beginnings of a half-smirk, half-sneer forming on his lips.

The Thunder Emperor absolutely abhorred that insufferable smile on the snake's face; hated it the minute he laid sight on that swaggering, lanky stranger who trespassed on his domain; flashing that grin arrogantly like he'd already won the fight when a single punch had yet to be thrown.

He'd make sure the bastard didn't win this time around.

"Stop staring at me like that and say something, damn it!" Raitei demanded, sparks skipping wildly from fist to fist.

Ban shoved his hands further into his pockets and closed his eyes for a second. Opening them once again with a clarity as pure as a rare blue diamond, he said simply, "Hit me. Hit me again if it makes you feel better."

The serpent with his forked tongue was mocking him, Raitei swore, just like he'd done all those years ago. 'Reverse psychology' they called it, did they? Well, he wouldn't fall for it. Definitely not.

"Don't mind if I do," he snarled and brought the top of his hand squarely into the middle of his nemesis's face.

Ban staggered on his feet. He tasted a piquant iron tang and let it slick in his mouth before spitting it out and sweeping his head back for another attack. And another. And another; until finally, he keeled over backwards and sprawled on the water-logged ground.

Raitei knelt over the fallen form and violently pulled him up by the lapels, searching into those sapphire seas for signs of surrender… fear… a plea for mercy; a twitch that told him there was a chink in that thick wall of pride.

On the contrary. The eyes on Ban's cut and bruised face burned hotter with defiance, like flames licking at the edge of certain victory.

"What? What the hell are you gloating at?" Why hadn't he pummeled the fight out of that insolent snake's battered body yet?

Ever so slightly, Ban's irises drifted teasingly to the side.

In his pugilistic fervor, the blond neglected to notice the taxi cab that halted at the parking lot entrance, didn't see the slip of a girl in her pink pajamas, tennis shoes and white cardigan running towards him. And now, she stood numb amidst the thunder and lightning tempest with an expression of utter devastation on her innocent features.

Raitei turned his head slowly in the direction of Ban's chortling gaze. He didn't know what affected him more – the fever ignited by his all-consuming hatred of the boy under his grip; or the shivers rattling his bones caused by the girl's frosty gray stare.

"Natsumi…"

"Stop it! What are you doing to Ban-san?" Trembling, Natsumi's tiny voice was broken in the rhythmic cadence of the rain. "Why are you hurting him?" The stillness of the three figures was stark against the rampage, their silence deafening in the constant bellow of thunder.

"I came because maybe… maybe, despite the circumstances, there was some way we could work things out…" She took several small, frightened steps in reverse and tried to close her sweater snugly around her.

"I was wrong. I… I shouldn't have come here. This was a mistake." With that, Natsumi swiftly fled off to the parking gate and into the sidewalk.

"Natsumi-chan! Wait!" Ginji yelled. Roughly dropping Ban into the lawn, he chased after the horrified teenager.

She ran blindly ahead, cutting through the heavy curtain of water until she reached an intersection. But before she could cross the street her pursuer caught up and stopped her momentum by snaking his arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground.

"Don't run!"

"Put me down! Let go of me!" Natsumi screamed.

The boy scooped her up as easily as carrying a mannequin. "You don't understand. I'm doing this because I love you." In her struggle, she forced him to back her up against a cherry tree.

"No!"

He crushed her body tight into his lean, hard frame, feeling her bare skin on his beneath the transparency of their soaking wet clothes. When she refused to meet his gaze, the Thunder Emperor's fingers laced into the strands of her hair and pulled gently so that Natsumi's neck craned upwards. She gasped with equal parts surprise and fear.

"I don't want to hurt you. I just want to make things right, that's all," he explained, so near that his lips brushed over hers with every other word he spoke, hovering excruciatingly between the pleasure and pain of caress alternating with the brief break in contact. "He's ruining everything between us, you see…"

The touch aroused vague memories of sweet warmth, of wet softness and a soul-devouring hunger – memories not his but of his other half. It made Raitei angry and excited at the same time. Did he not have a right to feel what his twin felt? Were not Ginji's spoils his, too?

Raitei decided they were. As Natsumi stood petrified and whimpering in his clutches, he brought his mouth to hers and with the tip of his tongue, languorously drank in the rain that collected like dewdrops on her bottom lip. It tasted as divine as nectar from heaven, which the emperor wanted more of. So he began to kiss her harder, fuller, with a thirst unquenched of lust. His free hand slithered up the nubile girl's top and explored the blossoming curves of her body, electric fingers practically branding her unsullied skin with his seal – _I own you_.

Raitei wanted as much as Ginji had, no less.

Natsumi's chilling shrieks went unheard as they echoed in her throat, drowned by the wanton pounding of the storm and its growling thunder. But her protests only made the impulses that coursed through Raitei's nerves rush faster, charged by the overpowering sensation of total control –

Or lack thereof. He never really knew the difference.

Out of sheer helplessness, the girl's screams faded into choked sobs, and soon, into dead silence; as if Raitei had drained all the life out of her. He had waited, waited for the warm, welcoming softness and yet, nothing. Instantly, he felt like he was kissing and touching cold ivory; a Galatea to his Pygmalion.

The Thunder Emperor pulled away impatiently only to see dull, distant, wounded gray eyes staring past him. Tears mixed in with the rain.

"You said you wanted to make things right," Natsumi droned monotonously. Weak-kneed and light-headed, she sank and curled up on the grass.

"Natsumi-chan!" he exclaimed as he knelt beside the student and cradled her in his arms.

"But how? By hurting Ban-san?" She looked up at the fiery blond and shook her head. "If you must blame someone, then blame me. You can do whatever you want with me because I caused this whole mess in the first place. It's my fault … for falling in love with him."

Raitei swept the girl's dripping hair out of her face. "Him? You mean me?"

"No. Him. Ginji." Natsumi's eyes gradually fluttered shut. She whispered. "I – I don't know who _you_ are. You're not Ginji…"

"But, I am…" He hugged his beloved to his chest and rocked her back and forth. "I'm sorry…"

Suddenly, maddening, crowing laughter crescendo-ed in his ears; the landscape changed all around him. Instead of trees, there were ugly, dilapidated concrete buildings. Instead of a lawn of freshly mown blades of grass, there was a muddy crater full of burning corpses. Raitei's eyes flared. _Fear._

"No." He couldn't possibly be back there.

"Ginji would never hurt Ban-san… Never hurt me…" Garbled, spectral voices. Natsumi's? Ghosts'?

"No. This can't be…" He was twelve again.

"You can't control yourself…" The body in his arms was lighter now; younger, cold. Much too cold. Twelve-year-old virgin eyes that were supposed to ogle at preciously hidden girlie magazines; twelve-year-old hands that should've been pitching baseballs and burning themselves with that first cough-inducing cigarette; they shouldn't have to feel the last breaths leaking out of broken bodies or see lights die out of youthful bright eyes.

But that's exactly what twelve-year-old Amano Ginji felt and saw right before him; a frail girl of ten with mousey brown hair and overalls draped across his arms like a bag of sticks.

"Chien? Chien!" He desperately shook the small girl, tried to wake her up.

"_Who are you?" _

"It's – it's me, Ginji…"

"_You're not Ginji…"_

"Yes, I am…"

"_You hurt me… Why did you kill me?"_

"No! I didn't. It wasn't me! It was…"

And the answer became a black hole that sucked in everything into its gravity field before collapsing into itself and being engulfed in a nebula of pure, blinding power that only the Thunder Emperor could stand to bask under –

Alone.

"_Nooooooo!"_

-

A leader bolt of lightning struck Ginji just as the illusion shattered into a hundred shards of repressed memories and desires. The white, hot flash seemed to smite him in punishment; whether self-inflicted or by the gods only Ginji would know as it burrowed into his core and coalesced with his own electricity, creating a blue-green surge that tried to escape from his body's confines.

But something reined the blast in. Quickly, the tendrils of current simultaneously wormed their way inside his body with a force that hurled Ginji into the hood of the Ladybug.

Raitei rode the wave together with the lightning, retreating back into the recesses he swore he'd completely break free from someday.

Because dark magic had won over the light once again.

Ban shielded his eyes from the brilliant radiance with his forearm, thankful he was quite a ways away from Ginji enough to avoid a secondary ground discharge, him being wet and all. He weathered the electric storm indignantly and – admitting to it or not – with extreme worry. He knew the fool had passed by Mugenjou, bringing about this, inconvenience; knew that Ginji was heartbroken; but this was ridiculous, he thought. Ban sighed hopelessly. _The things I do…_ It was beginning to become his mantra.

Confident that Ginji's body had ceased to throw off residual currents of a million volts or more, Ban gingerly crawled over to his glasses, picked them up and set them on the bridge of his nose higher up than usual. He wished the rain would stop so he could smoke the edge off his embattled soul.

A battle indeed. Ban hadn't cast a single stroke of his legendary, lethal hands yet he felt as though he had been fighting forever. Using the Jagan on someone he… knew too well, was the hardest. It was much easier to sic cannibalistic zombies and limitless rounds of bullets on strangers who fell instantly in fright at the absurd impossibility of it all; yet more difficult to sort through the psyche of one he shared so many memories with.

Ban strained himself deliberately, painfully; taking the utmost care in not amalgamating the bad memories with the good. Ginji had so few of those already, he took no chances with the possibility he could corrupt even one of them. Then with precision control, he abandoned the nightmare to Raitei's subconscious, allowed him to choose where he wanted it to go while he stood by as time-keeper. For the Jagan master knew not of the demons and ghosts this monster needed to face, only that they needed to scare _Ginji_ into sensible awareness.

And Ban knew more than anyone that the hauntings of past, present, and future realities were scarier than any spirit or ghoul from another world.

Raitei. Ban could care less about what happened to him if only that son of a bitch didn't share Ginji's body, memories and desires.

Wearily, the man with the Evil Eye walked over to the seizing boy on top of his car. Swatting the static particles that still hovered in the air, Ban clamped his Snake Bite around Ginji's throat and received a small shock, prompting him to throttle tighter in irritated response.

With a hoarse gasp, Ginji snapped back into consciousness, coughing and sputtering after inhaling rain water and having a crushing 200kg grip around his windpipe.

"Ban-chan? What happened?" He asked, blinking rapidly through the shower and trying to focus his eyes. Instantly, they bulged out in mortification upon fixing on his friend's face; which was burn blistered and nicked in places together with a split lower lip. Tearing up, Ginji guiltily reached out his hand, passed it over the pale sheen of Ban's cheek and gently swabbed the crimson stain on his lips; watching it wash down between his fingers in pinkish streaks. "Oh no. Ban-chan, did I –"

The brunette lifted the blond's head slightly by the neck and then slammed it back onto the hood. "Yes, you did, you fucking idiot!" Even though it stung like hell, Ban briskly wiped his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand, self-conscious at how vulnerable and scarred he must've looked. Nevertheless, he was surprised – and relieved – at Ginji's almost intimate gesture, proof that Raitei had completely skulked into his corner.

"I can't – can't recall…" Ginji moaned. Suddenly, a thin thread of remembrance dividing the weave between nightmare and reality stretched taut across his mind and he shot up. His eyes darted around.

"Natsumi-chan!" he called out. "Where is she? What have I done ?"

"Tch! You haven't done anything to anyone except me, moron! Natsumi was never here," Ban scoffed.

Ginji's jaw dropped. "The Evil Eye? You used it?"

"Not before you carved a goddamn joker's mouth into my face!" He snorted loudly and leaned against the side of the Ladybug. "I brought Natsumi into your – Raitei's – dream. But what you saw was what you wanted to see; or rather, what you didn't."

Ginji dropped to his knees into a puddle, covered his face with his hand and started to cry again. "Thank goodness. I thought I'd hurt her badly this time. I'd never forgive myself if I – " He declined to continue. Even though it was just a dream, it scared Ginji to think he might have it in him to be so – rough like that.

The very thought made him cry more emphatically.

Ban couldn't help but soften his toughened stance a little at seeing his best friend weeping like a repentant fallen cherub begging for clemency at the altar of God. He crouched in front of him and said, "You don't ever want her to see you like that, do you?"

"No. Never. I know that." Ginji shook his head and sniffled his reply. Leaning forward, he laid his forehead on Ban's shoulder. "I'm so sorry Ban-chan. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't mean to hit you. It's just that … It felt so unfair… Natsumi-chan. She was so sweet, so good to me, so wonderful to be with and to hold. I didn't want it to end. And then… and then…"

Hot tears seeped through the cold, drenched fabric of Ban's shirt and onto his skin. Normally, he would've flicked his partner's ear and fired a litany of expletives at his sickening sentimentality. But the dark-haired retriever couldn't bear to do so when Ginji's heart was in knots. Instead, he stared out into the trees as he literally lent a shoulder for him to cry on. They cut a picture worthy of an expressionist painting – an innocent man who grew up so late seeking comfort in a jaded boy who grew up too soon.

Ban made a face. Putting a hand on Ginji's arm, he stood up. "Eh. What can I say? Strange feelings sometimes make you do strange and crazy things."

"Feelings? You mean like… love?" The blond glanced up, wiping his eyes.

Ban turned away slightly. His silence was wistful, cryptic, and - revelatory. But only to himself.

Ginji knew better, though, and took his friend's snub as a 'yes', without him having to say as much.

"So why, Ban-chan? You knew this would happen. Why did you leave me alone with her?" Ginji implored. "Things were perfect among us. We were doing okay. But now everything's changed and … different."

Ban threw up his hands impatiently. "Just because you've had so little in your life doesn't mean 'just okay' is 'perfect', because it's not. Be a little selfish for once, Ginji. There's nothing wrong with wanting more for yourself." His tone went sotto voce. _Because you deserve more._

"But I liked the way things were before. It was a lot simpler." Ginji swiveled his head and blinked large doe eyes. As he settled down, so did the storm; the clouds relaxed and drifted, the skies opened up and the rain softened into a caressing drizzle.

"Even if 'simpler' means watching Natsumi give up on you while she finds a nice, safe, stable guy to share a nice, safe, stable life with?" Ban challenged as he opened the passenger door of his car, got in and lit a long-denied cigarette. "Hey, if you fear change so much, everything and everyone else not afraid of it will pass you by. And then where will you be?"

Ginji bowed his head. Of course, he didn't want to lose Natsumi, but…

"The girl wants to be a part of your future. I really don't see _why_, but she does," the Jagan master quipped. "And if you're not going to live for a future, then why do you continue to live at all?"

Ginji strolled over to the open door of the Ladybug and dejectedly leaned his arms on the top edge. He got a big puff of smoke in the face.

Ban chanced a strained smile through his busted, swollen lip. "No matter how perfect things seem, there will always be something better; no matter how happy you feel, something, _somebody_ will come along to make you happier."

"Life is all about changes. It… isn't easy." The Witch Queen's heir hesitated while his own mind crammed down unspeakable burdens that were his birthright and doom – burdens that aged his spirit a hundred years for every day of his cursed, young life. "But it isn't so bad either. In fact, change can be very good, if you make the right choices."

"Just like us," Ginji interpolated thoughtfully.

"Just like us," Ban mumbled.

The fair-haired Get Backer sat on the Ladybug's hood and dug his heels into her front tire. "As usual, you're the genius with all the answers Ban-chan. I can't imagine what I'd do without you."

Ginji caught his tongue and cringed while scuffing his sneakers restlessly on the rubber. He frowned, partly bothered at the implication he was living so unambitiously, and partly in shame at its blunt, biting truth. Ban had been everything to him in those years since he ran away from Mugenjou; wanted nothing more than to survive with him, follow him, be the light in his tragic life. Then Natsumi stole Ginji away for a night and the few blissful hours they spent together felt new and exciting… right … selfish. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help thinking he was somehow _cheating_ on the person he owed everything to.

And that's what made it all so confusing.

He guffawed. "Oh, I get it. So that's what's bugging you." Ban narrowed his eyes mockingly at his best friend's discomfort and waved his cigarette in a swirl of smoke like a genie granting a wish with his magic lamp.

"I've seen your dreams, you know. Pray tell, just how is being with me going to get you little runts running at your feet and a sweet girl to sleep with every night, eh?"

Ginji's gaze traveled to his shoes, a bright red flush creeping up his cheeks and to the tops of his ears. When the narcotic-laced fog cleared, Ban lightly thwacked him on the head. "Dammit, I don't know what you take me for, but I'm not going through a sex change and birthing babies for you, stupid!"

"Ban-chaaaaan…" Ginji gaped incredulously. He then ventured a past due smile. "Gee, thanks for that image. I think I've had enough nightmares for one day."

"I'm brilliant, but not _that_ brilliant," he smirked. "Besides, hypothetically? You're the girl in this partnership." Ginji blasted his partner with 30,000 volts through the window.

"Man… Lighten up," Ban grumbled as he shook off his frazzled nerves. The boys chuckled to themselves, imagining heinous visions of each other with bulging bellies. The Jagan master then turned thoughtful.

"Oi. Just because you two start snogging and whatever doesn't mean that what we have has to change…" Ban crossed his eyes and crumpled his face. _Wait, that didn't sound right…_

"Er… What I mean is, the "S" in Get Backers and all that shit –"

" – means we're never alone." Ginji smiled exasperatedly. "I gotcha."

"Yeah. And don't you forget it," he warned, hoping he didn't sound too – God forbid –prissy.

"Actually, I _do_ want to change some things between us, like the way you smack me around and keep stealing my food," Ginji proposed hopefully.

Ban shook his head. "No can do, bro. I'd probably do that to you even in the afterlife. Anyway, with all her giggling, I think for some reason, Natsumi _likes_ seeing me beat the crap out of you."

"And I think it's because she _likes _to comfort me afterwards," Ginji joked.

"Touché." Ban grinned impishly. He pointed his cigarette at him tauntingly. "Hmm. You're beginning to speak of Natsumi like you've known her your whole life."

He propped an elbow on his knee and chin in his hand. "Aa. Sometimes it seems that way. She and Hevn-san are the two girls I've known the longest outside the Infinite Castle. It's easy to take for granted the fact they're always there at the Honky Tonk. And maybe that's why –" His voice shriveled, a bit sadly. " - I never really noticed her."

In the cool, overbearingly humid wake of the rain, all manner of crickets, cicadas, frogs and other creatures of the night started to resume their cacophonic chorus of courtship serenades. And in the animal abandon of this ritualistic mating mayhem, two boys pondered silently at the mystique of the Honky Tonk women; how each one had their distinct charms and enchanting quirks; or how a subtle body movement would tell a compelling story; or that each girl could inspire her own sleepless-nights-inducing fetish. For Ginji, it was Natsumi's long black hair. Pulled up, tied in a ponytail or left loose; he was hypnotized by its constant sway, imagined himself buried in its depths and enveloped in its fragrant darkness like a peaceful sleep.

And for Ban it was …

"You've got a point. It feels like I've been pawing at Hevn's chest forever and I'm still not sure whether those puppies are real or not."

"Ban-chan! Is that all you think about?" the blond groaned.

He shrugged indifferently. "Duh, yeah. That and money. What else is there?"

Ginji sighed. "It's funny how you're so open to new things yet, you never actually change, while I'm quite the opposite. And my wants aren't even that lofty. However – " A small, fond smile unwarily crossed his boyish face. "Natsumi-chan and I wished on this silly lantern. Maybe it's because we shared it so that's why only one of us would have a wish come true, I'm not sure…"

"Anyway, All I wished for was that all of us be safe and to stay the same as we are now. While she; I think she wished that I… I would fall in love with her." The young man raked fingers through his thick, damp hair. "I'm pretty certain at least some of my wish isn't coming true –"

" – and hers did?" Ban asked. Rhetorically. He already knew the answer.

Ginji drew in a breath of the fresh, renewed air, the fermata in the symphony of his thumping heart. A tear of resignation trailed down his cheek. "Yes, I suppose it did."

Wide, bright eyes shined in the night. Ban had never seen such a maelstrom of hope and despair and happiness and sorrow brewed together in those velvet seas as he half-sat, half-slouched next to his friend.

"But I couldn't even tell Natsumi-chan how much I care for her. She wouldn't let me. And frankly, I didn't think I wanted to, either. Not when there's this monster inside of me; not if she has to grieve and rejoice and grieve again every time I die and resurrect, never knowing if the next time I'll even wake up; not if she'll be put in harm's way like Madoka." Ginji clutched at his breast. "I can't. I can't put her through all that."

_Like what you put me through,_ Ban reflected bemusedly. He lit up a new cigarette with his cindering stub and turned to meet those warm, beautiful brown eyes with his own – not sharp like lasers as they usually were, but softly glazed like ancient cerulean china. His eyes were proud and venerable as those of a father admiring the first perfectly tied shoelaces of his growing son; yet sad like the same father expecting those laces to come loose and cause the boy to stumble.

"That's one of the smartest things you've ever done, Ginji." He rumpled the boy's straw-coloured hair affectionately. Then his voice lilted into an uncharacteristic lullaby. "And Natsumi loves you very much to let go of you like she did. Even though it hurts her more than it does you since she's been smitten with you a lot longer."

Ginji smiled weakly at hearing the stoic snob use the words _'smart'_ and _'love' _in the same sentence – especially in reference to him. But he was still lost in context. "So why did we have to go through the motions if only to…" He grappled with the right words. "…postpone our feelings?"

Ban exhaled a great plume into the air above and answered gently, "Insurance, dummy. Your future. When all this is over, wouldn't it be nice to have someone you've safely and securely tucked away to come back to? Someone who's waited to love you, take care of you, and give you the normal life you've always dreamt about?"

The older boy studied the cool, aquiline profile of his partner as he blew concentric smoke rings one after the other. Sensing a peculiarity he couldn't quite place, Ginji's expression sagged; his brow creased. "Ban-chan, what are you trying to say?"

"You now have a dream to live for, if you live long enough to claim it. And you will _live_, I promise." Ban stated with a strange, resolute edge to his voice. Hiking up his glasses, he looked dead ahead.

"Ban-chan…" Ginji's hand cuffed his partner's upper arm.

He made no move to shake him off. "I don't get why everyone thinks the Evil Eye is so special. They call me a dream weaver, a master of illusion, your worst nightmare. But in the end, that's all I've given - a dream, an illusion, a nightmare; a figment of my imagination. I can influence the choices people make after the dream, but I can't turn them into reality…"

"… and what good is a nice, perfect dream if I can't make it come true – for you and the people I –"

Ban stopped abruptly, eyes still fixed unto a point in an infinite universe that was solely his own. He closed them against the hundreds of souls that etched their memories into his irises, ripping new flames that burned them bluer with every conquest and spreading to places where tears had long forgotten to collect.

How many dreams had he forced on himself sleeping alone in those dark, dirty alleyways and dusty old warehouses trying to record over the indelible images of blood that looped in his mind? Dreams where Yamato was always alive and driving his big-ass American convertible, jaunty cigarette between the roguish sneer; and where his sister hadn't run away and wasn't screaming, screaming those endless infernal screams.

Oh, how Ban replayed them over and over again until they gnarled in his head and threatened to encroach even into his dreary waking hours; living, dreaming in lifeless catalepsy at the off chance one of them – just one – would come true.

But none of them ever did.

Then Ban met that terrifying golden angel in Mugenjou and stared into grave, empty eyes that were so much like his own. He made him imagine he was free – free from the violence, free from the destruction, free from the manipulations of the gods. Through him, the boy saw another world, one where he could descend among the mortals and use his magnificent power for good.

And amazingly, the dream came true.

With renewed hope, Ban could nearly believe the Jagan could someday be used to make things right again, to rectify the past, or make any fantasy – or nightmare – go beyond a minute and last an eternity. Ginji's – their – miracle couldn't possibly be a fluke.

But he was sorely mistaken. For the more Ban got to know Ginji, the more he realized no amount of his blood, strength, knowledge or magic had ever made a dream reality. It was Ginji who had made the dream real unto itself - Ginji who could shape the strongest of will; the perfect foil to Ban, who could only show the way.

And together, they could _almost_ make any wish come true.

Alas, when it came to their own dreams - that was a different matter. For whereas Ginji's dreams were real, practical, attainable…

Ban's dreams were not.

The Jagan master opened his cursed eyes and let any sympathetic soul that resided in them pity him, cry for him where he could not. Ban had long since relinquished his hold on those dreams that starred Yamato so prominently. But sometimes, once in a while, they rolled in the projector of his memory; if only to remind him those dreams used to be his sole reason for living. The reels were grainy and scratched now and missing a few frames, the dialogue muffled. Even the crimson of the projection screen had lost some of its vivid bloody colour. But even though Ban let the dream fade, he hadn't forgotten. He still had his promise.

He made apologies to his mentor, brother – friend. He vowed to fulfill the promise he made to him and his sister Himiko. That he would do. But Ban also had another reason for living now, someone beyond him and everything in his ugly life; a pure-hearted, naïve boy he had saved from the depths of hell - or rather, who had saved him. He who was already damned.

Ban's life was utterly, completely Ginji's; yet he had asked nothing more from him except friendship. And now that Ginji had expanded his scope of hopes and wants – simple things really – he would thwart anything, _anyone_; be it the Yakuza, the demons of the Belt Line, or the gods of Babylon City; who would stop Ginji from having them.

Still, they all clamored to use him, consume him; refuse him even the modest future he had already earned.

It was never in his power to make anyone's dream a reality, but Ban swore if he could give up his life of giving a thousand false dreams in order to make just one dream come true –

He would.

"Ban-chan…" Ginji repeated anxiously. His hand slid up to Ban's shoulder and nudged.

"Mm?" He blinked once and the cigarette see-sawed as his lips moved, collapsing a column of ash into his jeans.

The blond's gaze shifted from his partner's pensive silhouette to the cinders on his leg and back again. "You were talking strangely and then you spaced out." His eyes became moist ponds of goo. "You sounded sad. Like… like you were going to say goodbye or something."

_Heh. Intuitive little bugger._ "Huh? What made you think that?" Ban brushed the ash off his pants and shot him a furtive sideways glance. "I was just wondering how on earth I'm gonna get you back to Natsumi in one piece when you keep dying and turning Raitei all the time and stuff."

Ginji breathed a sigh of relief, the tension on his face wilting. "Oh, so that's all. I thought it was something serious. You, you scared me for a while there."

The brunette rammed the heel of his hand into the side of his best friend's skull. "That's all? That's all! Fool! I _was_ being serious!"

"Ow!" he whined, wincing and massaging his aching head. Squinting one eye, he explained, "I know. It's just that Natsumi-chan and I have full faith in you." He smiled bashfully, his expression never more open and honest. "I see everything now. I think Natsumi-chan knows I want her. But she understands how much I need –"

Ban slowly turned to Ginji with a raised eyebrow, and he merely shrugged in return. Nothing further followed, for between the Get Backers, _'you'_ was a word they needn't have to say.

After a couple of seconds of that pleasant, profoundly pregnant mutual silence they were so used to, Ban snipped, "Damn right you should have faith. I'm the invincible Mido Ban-sama, remember?"

Funny how, for the first time, those mighty words seemed to have lost some of their conviction. But he smiled anyway. It had ceased to become all about him, after all.

"Yo, dork. I know what you're doing. Don't think your treacly bullshit is going to get you the hotel bed tonight," he razzed. But of course it would. Let Ginji loll about dreaming of doing sweet, naughty things with a girl he had fallen in love with.

Ginji chuckled, kind of knowing that's exactly how that particular arrangement would work out. He then cradled his head in his hand and mused. "Ban-chan?"

"Aa?"

"You always think about what's good for me. But what about what's good for you? What do you live for, Ban-chan?"

Ah, one of Ginji's trademarked smart-dumb, Freudian trick questions where the answer could either turn out to be a lame punchline or a soul-splitting revelation. Ban slipped his cig off his lips and blew hot air. "Money, food, and a nice piece of ass." _Half-lies._

"No. Really," Ginji prodded further, dissolving that hard shell with molten eyes.

"I don't know. To fulfill my promises?" _Half-truths._

"Aaaand_ –_?"

"And what?" Denial. Avoidance. Silence.

Ginji waited. How could Ban sermonize all about futures and dreams to him and not have any himself?

"Oh, Ban-chan," he finally sighed with the bemused exasperation of a parent tolerating the stubborn quirks of a precocious child. His tone carried a tinge of sorrow. "How come… How come you don't believe you deserve to be happy?"

_Truth._

Ban stared at the cigarette burning precariously close between his fingers, clamping it still when the stick quivered. Or was it his fingers that were doing the quivering? "I'm happy as can be," he replied nonchalantly.

_Lie?_

"But don't you want to be happier? You said so yourself, there's always something or someone…" Ginji pivoted Ban's shoulder, forced him to confront the question.

The cursed man gave up. Wordlessly, he opened up the Pandora's Box of his eyes; let Ginji peer into the vast repository of souls, memories, and psyches of the Jagan's victims. And drowning somewhere within that decaying mulch of clutter was his own soul - no different, no less sinful, Ban thought, from those he stole. His unmoving lips said nothing, but his eyes told everything. _How can you find happiness in this accursed hell?_

Yet, even as his spirit silently roared inside that lake of deep blue fire, he could see that glimmer of guiding light piercing the liquid depths from above. And up he swam higher and higher, while the world grew brighter and brighter; his lungs almost tasting that first glorious breath of life-giving air. And then he crashed through the waves and broke the surface; opening his real eyes to see – the welcome of an outstretched hand and the smiling face of the sun.

Happiness.

_So that's where it is._

"… all you need is someone to look past what you've done and see who you really are and who you can become. You taught me that…" Ginji chattered, gaze still riveted on his friend.

Ban mouth puckered into a crooked smile. And then he laughed. He didn't even notice the cigarette butt had singed the skin on his fingers. He laughed some more.

The blond pouted. "Hey. I wasn't trying to be funny."

"Man, quit your blathering, will 'ya? You? Giving _me_ a lecture?" He twisted the twerp's ear and hooked him into a headlock. In an alternate dimension where subconscious had flesh and inhibition had no meaning, that headlock would've been an earnest bear hug and lips would be whispering a grateful _'thank you'_ - instead of gruffly shouting…

"I said I was happy, all right, dumbass? Geez!"

True, that. Ban decided then and there he needn't push for anything truer.

Ginji twisted his head awkwardly through the crook of his partner's arm. "Yeah, but –" He grinned. " – don't you want your own Natsumi-chan?"

"Why? Are you giving her to me?"

"Um, yeah, right," Ginji snorted, popping out of his clinch. Then his childish mischief blossomed in the form of a sneaky smile and a (not-so-bright) idea. "You know what this means, Ban-chan? I'm going to have to set you up with someone, too."

Being with Natsumi had apparently sparked his sense of … creativity.

Ban rolled his eyes, slid off the hood of his car and walked away. "Good grief. The way you operate, I'd learn about your plot before you do and probably end up planning the whole thing myself."

The wannabe matchmaker ticked off potential candidates with the perky enthusiasm of a pep squad cheerleader. "Let's see. There's Himiko-chan. Why don't you just talk to her, huh? Over dinner maybe? Hehe."

"And Hevn-san – you really should quit grabbing her, umm… " Ginji clawed his palms over his chest. "You know, maybe if you asked her nicely, she might let you... who knows, ne? Oh, and remember that girl with the daggers? Or how about that stripper who was actually an undercover…" He budged. " Oi! Where are you going?"

Ban shook his head and sniggered as he ambled over to the shrine bench. The lamebrain was way over his head, he thought. Then again, this was the boy who could bend fate and change destinies. He'd be careful not to underestimate what Ginji was capable of once he put his heart to it; a power so great and magnetic it could almost make Ban – damned demon child that he was – believe he had _hope_. Of being saved. Again. Maybe long enough to have some kind of future, perhaps?

_Dream on, kid, dream on._

Ban took two beer cans off of the bench and tossed one to Ginji.

"Huh? What's this for?" he asked, rolling the wet can from one hand to the other.

The Jagan wielder returned to his place on the hood and popped the tab on his beer. As the beverage fizzed, Ban explained, "I figured you'd want to either celebrate – or commiserate. I guess it's a little of both, right?"

Ginji regarded the trivial scrolls of print on the can so typical of Japanese packaging and shot the brunette an accusing look. "You weren't really drunk, were you?"

"Heh. Not even close. It'll take more than two measly beers to tip me over."

"And the car? There was nothing wrong with it?"

"A bit of fast thinking there. Didn't expect Natsumi to call, actually." He grinned.

"So you lied to us," Ginji muttered between the increasingly charmed, twisted corners of his mouth. "You sneak."

"Oi, I should be a candidate for canonization, if you ask me," Ban griped. "I mean, what kind of short end of the stick did I get anyway? Aside from the fact I let you slave-drive my poor car, you got to eat dinner while I literally had peanuts and –" he added enviously. " – you likely got a little sumthin'-sumthin' to boot."

Ginji's cheeks bloomed as red as a ripe tomato. Ordinarily, he would've been humble about his performance average in his first at-bat in the ballpark; but like a peacock that had just grown his first full plumage of tail feathers, he couldn't help but ruffle them. His eyes sparkled with puckish triumph.

"What do you mean _'a little'_?"

The two testosterone-jacked Get Backers exchanged moronic grins and high-fives like loser-dorks who managed to leaf-blower up a skirt or two. "You horny dog!" Ban whooped as juvenilely as a drunken frat boy. "You're worse than I am!"

"No way! Am not!" Ginji protested, but slightly proud Ban was finally acknowledging he had one-upped him at something. He wasn't too sure if that was supposed to be a compliment, though. The blond opened his beer can and took a sip, feeling manly enough now to pretend not to grimace at his distaste of the drink. He wondered briefly why they couldn't produce candy-flavoured beer for guys like him.

Meanwhile, Ban tried to cajole Ginji into dishing details. To his credit – and surprise – he remained mum. Mainly because he respected Natsumi that much, and furthermore, because what they shared he considered as too special; as poignant as a first time. For Ginji knew, his life being the way it was, he might not get a second chance.

But he had high hopes as he stared raptly at the only person who would make sure that didn't happen.

" – my only beef with the Ladybug is that she wasn't made for making out. I mean, you'd have to be an acrobat to –" Ban contemplated between quaffs.

"Ban-chan?" Ginji gently interrupted his friend's reverie with a wide smile of childish wonderment. He turned, curious.

"You know, with your hair down like that and face cut up and bruised, you look just like you did when we first met."

"Is that so?" Ban smiled his reply, combing his damp hair away from his eyes and vainly attempting to fluff it back into its usual spikes. "Well, you look nothing like what you were back then."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Very." Ban nodded and lifted his can in a toast. "To a future… of good changes."

Ginji raised his. "…and of us always staying the same."

"Yeah. And to make oodles and oodles of money –" He winked. " –and nookie."

"Ban-chan!" The abashed boy complained, then giggled. "Heck. I'll drink to that. _Kampai!_"

"_Kampai!"_

The best friends tapped their cans together and swilled. Huddled on top of a solitary car silently sealing their pact, Ban and Ginji settled back into the yin-yang swirl of their "S'. The moon smiled, the constellations twinkled.

The storm had passed.

-

_(to be concluded)_

-

**A/N2: **Okay, so this turned out to be a GinjixNatsumixBan bizarre love triangle kind of thingy where everyone is thinking about someone else. Ah, to be a martyr and in love. :D

I've implied here that Ban finally defeated Raitei in Mugenjou by using the Evil Eye to show Ginji what the real world is like and/or what would happen to Mugenjou if he continued to stay. No one knows really how Ban defeated Raitei at full strength, but neither is it mentioned that Ban actually had to come to blows with him to do it. So the Evil Eye theory could be possible. Heh. Whatever.

_Lonfa Chien_ is the name of the little brown-haired girl in Ginji's arms when he first transformed into Raitei.

Hope I didn't scare you too much with that Raitei/Natsumi dream sequence. Come to think of it, I may be overdoing the Freudian crap a bit, hehe. Sorry. :D

**_limelie :_** Thanks for reading (and crying)! Hope your translation project is going well. Cheers!

**_Mayumi-san : _**Glad you liked the last chapter. Oh, did you like the little prop I gave to Iarra near the end there? Hope you don't mind. :D Thanks for the R R! Put up a new fic soon, okay?

**_hikari : _**Yeah, I meant it to be a little sad. Ban really didn't ruin anything, as you probably found out in this chapter. They all gave up each other for the good of the other person – but not without hope (I hope!). Thanks for reading.

**_Endless :_** Who knew a GinjixNatsumi romance could be so complicated. :D The last chapter makes up for the angst, I promise. –wink- Glad you're enjoying this. Thanks.

**_TheOriginal :_** Yup. I always make Ginji suffer in my fics. But he always comes out all right in the end. :D Thanks for reading. Good luck on your fic!

**_machanbanlover :_** Sorry this update took so long. My laptop apparently liked to sweat. :D Thanks for reading.

**_Littleadryan : _**I felt guilty and made an epilogue that I hope takes the sting out of the angst somewhat. But I hope you like this chapter as well. Thank you for your nice review. Cheers!

**_Rabid lola : _**"You fooled us with that chapter title 'Love'. If I wrote my whole review in Tagalog, what would you do?" I think I answered your question. HA :D I had a good translator. But now she thinks I'm a whack job. Ay-yi-yi. How 'ya doin Rabid-san?

Okay, so I tortured Ban some more in this chapter. Now you'll REALLY want to kill me, I know it, hehe.

Er, the Paul thing was the only spoiler. Yup. Oh, and Kirihito is alive (I think). Actually, this GinjixNatsumi angst angle was sort of inspired by that whole Eternal Bond Arc, being the mess that it was. Ginji died twice(!) and turned Raitei twice(!) courtesy of Shido (!) who died once but was revived by the sacrifice of Emishi's new best pal Natsuki Amon (who died, never to be seen again). And all this because Madoka was kidnapped. And why was Madoka kidnapped? Because Shido couldn't stay away from her, despite Ban's warnings. I know it's all for plot advancement, yadda, yadda. But still, that sort of sucked. So I figured, if Ginji fell for Natsumi, would he risk the same thing happening to her? And tada! There's my story.

**_angel-skie : _**Thanks! Hope this chapter meets your expectations, too!

**_bc :_** Hallo! Sorry for the late update but (see above). Hee! I actually enjoyed writing those GinjixNatsumi love scenes even though it was sweet/sad. Natsumi sorta reminds me of Audrey Tautou in 'Amelie' and 'A Very Long Engagement' combined. I don't know why. She just does. :D Anyway, The next chapter is a short tie-up that (hopefully) makes up for all the angst. Thanks for reading!

**_Nisha:_** Oh, you flatter me so (blush). Very glad you enjoy this fic. I'm putting up the next chapter shortly. Thanks a mil for your kind words:D

**_Bahaghari:_** Nice to hear from you again! Yup, still continuing with the experiment. This time I tried exploring mixing psychology and male bonding dynamics into the chapter since it's mostly the Get Backers in conversation. Ehm. I hope it wasn't too awful. :D Thanks for the props!


	6. Match Point

"**The Prize"**

**Disclaimer : **Been there. Done that.

**A/N: **I originally wanted to end this fic at Chapter 5 on an open-ended level. But honestly, how could I leave Ginji and Natsumi hanging like that? They're just too cute. So the result… is this; pure silliness that I'm not even sure fits in at all with the general theme (not to mention the angst –cringe-). Take it as an epilogue if you will. Oh, and as a Valentine's Day offering, maybe. Warnings galore, hehe.

Big, big thanks to everyone who tuned in and extra hugs to those who left a kind word in passing. I cannot appreciate your thoughtfulness enough. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

Well, time to draw the curtains closed. Enjoy!

**-**

**_VI. Match Point_**

Ginji yawned and sat at the Honky Tonk counter drumming his fingers on the tabletop. Head kept down limply, his eyes feigned busy attention by skimming the wood veneer's grains aimlessly; tracing the swishes and swirls until his view caught a small scratch of a heart gouged lightly into the varnish with a ballpoint pen. Inside the heart were the names 'Hoshi' and 'Hikari'. '_Star'_ and '_light' _, Ginji thought. How very kismet. No doubt that piece of engraving came from someone who had nothing better to do than to pour out his or her lonely, lovesick heart into a childish scribble that passed for extemporaneous art.

Paul was attracting a lot of those types into his little hole in the wall, so it seemed.

"Eep," Ginji let out an inaudible mouse-like squeak and transferred to another stool where the etching wasn't so visible. He began tap dancing his shoes on the metal footrest. How he wished he didn't have to face what he dreaded – and feared – most…

The morning after.

As the Get Backers waited for Hevn to drop by with a new assignment, Ginji recalled whining, pleading with Ban if it would be possible for them to rendezvous with the agent someplace else; only to be answered with a flat-out _"no"_ and a bonk to the head. Then the blond tried to lock himself inside the bathroom - a useless endeavor really when there was 200kg of force knocking on the opposite side. Ginji finally relented when Ban threatened to dunk his head, and toothbrush, into the toilet. Fine, then. Geez, if he was going to stand before Natsumi eventually, he sure wasn't going to do it smelling like a sewer.

He just didn't expect 'eventually' to mean like, after nine hours.

Natsumi busied herself behind the bar carefully cutting a round, frosted cake into slices while the coffee bubbled nearby. With the only sound in the café being the persistent gurgling and the intermittent scrunching of Paul's newspaper, Ginji was a ticking bomb. He couldn't bear the casual tranquility any longer.

He cleared his throat while nervously twiddling his thumbs. "Did you bake that cake yourself?" He asked the dark-haired teenager reticently. Admittedly, not the greatest conversation starter between potential lovers.

"Mm-hmm," Natsumi coolly hummed, focus un-swayed from her task at hand. " - At three o' clock in the morning, actually. I couldn't sleep much."

"Me neither," Ginji murmured. That was an understatement. Even though he won the right to the bed at the cheap hotel room the retrievers rented, Ginji tossed and turned all night until, ultimately, switching places with a very amused Ban. Apparently, a hard floor was a terrific way to kill any kind of 'romantic' feeling.

Natsumi giggled slightly to herself as she dug about for saucers and some cutlery.

The blond Get Backer wrinkled his brow. Girls sure were strange creatures, he decided. For someone who was supposedly heartbroken and likely sobbed her lungs out for hours, Natsumi seemed calm, collected, and together. Plus, she looked fresh and so pretty, like a girl who'd just come home from a long, relaxing vacation. And last night was no vacation. Well, it was, sort of, until ruined by a ferocious thunderstorm – literally.

_Ugh._ Ginji didn't get it at all. Was the girl happy they said goodbye before they barely said hello? Did she get over him that quickly? Did she lie in bed and suddenly make up her mind she could definitely do better than a stupid dork and find herself a nice, handsome university-bound chap who didn't even have to take civil service exams? Maybe she called up Mitsuharu Hiroshi (funny that he remembered his name) and took him up on his offer of private tutorial sessions (wink-wink-wink).

Ginji gulped.

Not that he _wanted_ to, but Ginji half-expected Natsumi to be wearing a sack-cloth and rubbing ashes or cow manure or whatever into her hair just like those crazy women in the Bible. Damn it. She should've been making him feel miserable with guilt, instead of making him feel miserable with...

Why, why did she have to go and make herself look so freakin' cute?

As Natsumi turned to check on the coffee, she smoothed down the hem of her shirt over the curve of her taut waist. Her lavender knit top was a short-sleeved one-off-shoulder thing with a single spaghetti strap draped across her bare alabaster shoulder, marking a spot between her neck and shoulder blade that, Ginji swore, just begged to be kissed.

The more he stared, the more he began to fall. Sure, he'd seen Natsumi before in significantly less on a few of the gang's beach and hot springs excursions, but he found it curiously intriguing how much more enticing a flash of skin became when there was a promise of possession.

And it didn't help that she also had on tight, hip-hugging jeans that nicely showed off her shapely, endless legs. Ginji hadn't told anyone (for not even Ban had discussions like that with him, probably thinking Ginji wasn't capable of getting _any _of it anyway) but he was never really a breast man like his notoriously lecherous partner was. For him it was all about a beautiful, smiling face and miles and miles of limbs. And boy, he just realized, did Natsumi have a fabulous pair of legs on her. Long and limber like a dancer's, he imagined how slinky they'd be wrapped around…

Natsumi leaned forward to push a cup of coffee in front of him, disrupting Ginji's rapidly de-evolutionizing, degenerating train of thought.

She smiled daintily.

He did a double-take.

_Oh,_ he thought. _Ohhh…_ Was he mistaken in noticing a touch of gloss on her lips?

He peered again and forgot to look away. _No._ Red heat flushed up his cheeks.

"Sugar?" Natsumi offered. It appeared to him as though she mouthed the word in syrupy slow motion.

_Yes, yes. Please, yes!_ "Sure." Ginji's curt, no-nonsense answer contrasted sharply with the nearly orgiastic responses screaming from his mind, his nerves, and goodness knows where else. His heavy, half-lidded eyes were drawn hypnotically to those lips, which he remembered were his, briefly. Unconsciously, he lurched slightly into that vision, which kind of reminded him of a luscious, glistening, jewel-toned piece of watermelon-coloured hard candy; heavenly sweetness which he'd pop into his mouth and slowly suck on…

_Damn! What the hell!_ Ginji finally snapped out of his wet daydream. Without warning, he slapped his face hard and leapt off his seat like a scalded cat.

Natsumi jumped away from him in alarm. "Gin-chan?" She lightly bit on his object of fantasy in puzzlement.

_No, no. Don't do that._ Ginji sighed inwardly. With caution, he felt if there was blood dripping down his nose again. Thankfully, no. He'd hate to explain to Natsumi why he kept bleeding from there, to tell her some little white lie that he was sick, as in some disease; and not sick, _sick_. The Get Backer paced a few steps to and a few steps fro, not knowing where to go. He thought of heading to the bathroom, for even though he just had a shower, he felt he badly needed another. A very cold one.

He glanced over to the farthest corner of the bar at Ban, who merely saluted and smirked knowingly. Ginji made a face at his friend, swearing he'd kill or at least taser a few hundred thousand volts into the unsympathetic snake for not wanting to wait somewhere or anywhere else but here.

"Oh, um… it was just a mosquito. Yeah. It's dead now," he replied, rubbing his cheek. Timidly, the blond dredged his feet and sat back down, positing his slightly-puffy-from-last-night's-crying eyes on the coffee cup. _Caffeine. Caffeine… That might work._ Picking the ceramic cup swiftly, he chugged the steaming liquid down in one gulp.

"Aaaaghh…" Ginji mumbled in agony as he slammed the cup into its saucer and covered his parboiled mouth.

"Are you sure you're okay? That was a freshly brewed cup you just drank there," Natsumi warbled her concern. But her gleaming puffy-from-last-night's-crying eyes were starting to laugh. She had attempted to hide them behind a pair of round, violet glasses that were exactly like Ban's; but they hardly covered even half of the ridiculously huge chrome Chinese stress balls of her eyes.

Ginji looked into those mocking eyes, which were now tinctured with whirls of lilac mist – just like Akabane's, he thought, except larger, softer, and – hey, why was he associating Natsumi with Jackal anyway?

The high school girl chuckled.

Of course. To his chagrin, turns out both took precious amusement in watching him suffer. Greatly, he might add.

"I'm… I'm fine," Ginji whimpered. Fine in that he had effectively quashed his overactive libido. Not fine, for he practically had to maim himself, burn half his mouth off to do so. "Really." He took a deep breath of relief as the waitress handed him a glass of ice water.

All that fantasizing about bonbons made him remember the bag Natsumi left in the elevator. He reached into his pocket. "Natsumi-chan, I think you forgot this…"

She clapped her hands as Ginji slid over his gift reluctantly. "Oh! Is it the candy? I knew I dropped it. I searched the elevator and the whole lobby last night…" The girl exclaimed radiantly. She then tilted her head upon seeing a brown, charred, caramelized, shapeless chunk of … something. "Um… What is that?"

"I'm sorry, Natsumi-chan. It kinda got… struck by lightning?" He shrugged sheepishly.

She examined the thing in her hand in silence. Being the Pollyanna that she was, though, she saw in it what nobody else could possibly see. Natsumi thought it looked like a heart. Not a Valentine's heart, mind you; but a human heart – preserved and pickled and out of its brine. She erupted into snickers.

Ginji pouted like a kicked puppy.

"This is the funniest, weirdest, most adorable piece of candy I've ever seen!" She clutched the lump to her own heart. Natsumi didn't know what had happened to Ginji after he left her apartment, but she figured him getting hit by lightning had something to do with their little affair. And since this was the human electric power plant here and not some ordinary bloke who would've been roasted to a crisp if zapped by millions of volts; Natsumi thought it was very sweet and touching of him to have to go through all that just for her – in a morbid kind of way.

" – and because it's from you, I'll cherish it always."

Ginji face-faulted. "Really? You sure? You're not, eh, offended? I can give you something else if you want." His doe eyes blinked contritely.

Violet specs slipped down her button nose as she shook her head. _Like what, another kiss?_ Her irises twinkled mirthfully. Instead, Natsumi playfully mussed up his hair and set down a slice of chocolate fudge cake and a bowl of whipped cream for him. "Don't be silly. Besides, to quote that English saying, 'It's the thought that counts', ne?" she assured. "Now eat your cake."

Ginji smiled at her gratefully, tickled pink at how charmingly bossy she sounded, almost like – and not that he was an expert or anything – a wife. If marriage was something similar to having cake everyday, maybe he wouldn't mind it at all, he thought.

"Hey, you know? I sort of feel out of place with all of you guys wearing dark glasses…" Ginji unhooked his night vision goggles from his steel retractable belt and slipped them around his head and over his eyes. "Will this do?"

With his yellow locks, the boy uncannily resembled a bumblebee; and buzzed about for his cake like one, too.

Natsumi laughed. "Can you even see what you're doing, Gin-chan?"

"No, not really." Ginji pitched his fork around, fumbling until he hit something soft.

Giggling further, the perky teenager called out to the blond's best friend. "Ban-san, do you want some cake?"

"Nah. I'm all right," he replied lazily. Ban wasn't one to care about adolescent concepts such as cuteness, but he had to admit Ginji and Natsumi made a damn cute couple if there ever was one.

The Honky Tonk owner wasn't too convinced, though.

Paul pretended to be thoroughly engrossed in his morning paper when, all the while, his nose was buried deep into its fold, black shades spying surreptitiously over the top edge. He didn't even notice his cigarette just burned a hole right into the forehead of the Japanese Prime Minister, making him look like he'd been blasted through by a shotgun.

"Er… Paul?" Ban pointed.

The barkeep frowned, pulled the paper away from his face and noisily flapped it out into a makeshift screen shielding them from the flirting youngsters. "Just look at her. I mean, what is that she's wearing? And why?" He hissed.

Ban sloppily slumped into the counter, head nested drowsily in folded arms. "So? Kid looks nice, if you ask me."

"You didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" Paul wondered skittishly, accusingly.

"What are you blaming me for? You're the one who suggested Natsumi should go with us to the festival in the first place," the spiky-haired retriever sneered back, finding it a hoot how all this was making the redhead crap his pants.

"Hmph! So she could have fun, not so she could have _fun_," Paul groaned. "Damn it! She's only seventeen. If I find out she and your partner…"

Ban was having a little fun of his own torturing his creditor. "What's the big friggin' deal? If you happen to forget, this is innocent, dumb dopey were talking about here." He smirked. "Or would you rather it was me over there instead of him?"

"Good lord, no!" he balked, thankful for small mercies. "But since Ginji's slowly taking after you in the deviant department, it might just as well be you."

"Thanks a lot. I so try to be a good role model," Ban snorted. He picked his head up and snooped out the side of Paul's stupid paper wall.

_Something to live for, indeed, _the Jagan master thought as he watched Natsumi at her subtle game. The girl was a fighter. A look and peek here, a touch and taste there. He smiled imperceptibly, pleased at how Natsumi was cleverly showing Ginji what he was missing and what would be waiting for him once he got his life in order; giving him an additional incentive to come back from the last battle safe and alive – no matter what the obstacles…

No matter what happened to _him_.

Because as Get Backers, they never really knew.

So now, Ginji had someone else to live for. It gratified Ban to no end that, finally, he had ceased to be the only one; knew his best friend would never have to face being alone.

**-**

Ginji finished his plate of cake and raved enthusiastically. "That was delicious, Natsumi-chan." He put his hands together in a begging gesture. "You think I can have the whole cake? Please?"

"No, you can't." She swatted his hands teasingly as she held up Ginji's bag of toys. "But… If you help me put up your stuffed animals, I might give you another slice."

"Sure! I'm game. What do you want me to do?" he piped up brightly.

Natsumi then noticed something. Squinting, she blurted out, "Um, Gin-chan, you have… on your…" She motioned a hand to her lips.

"Oh," Ginji muttered. He swiped a napkin off the holder, but before he could bring it up, Natsumi bent close to him, steadied his face in her cupped hand and scolded gently, eye-to-eye.

"Tsk, tsk. You're quite the messy eater, aren't you?" And with that, she used the tip of her middle finger to softly smear the dab of whipped cream off his bottom lip. For a split-second, it hovered tantalizingly over Ginji's lips and he wondered deliriously what he was supposed to do.

But Natsumi solved that dilemma for him as she straightened up and coquettishly lifted her finger to her own lips and quickly licked the cream off. Smiling innocently, she then turned her back and began taking toys out of the paper bag.

Ginji pushed the goggles to the top of his head and blinked widely in disbelief.

With ponytail bobbing flirtatiously, Natsumi spun her head around and sing-songed, "Your cake is waiting."

"Cake. Right," Ginji droned, slightly in shock. Clumsily, he climbed behind the counter to join her.

Paul wrenched away in horror from his improvised cigarette burn peephole and roughly fanned out his newspaper into a shield again, almost ripping it in half.

"Ban! Did you see ! Where… where… where the hell did Natsumi learn that?" he stammered. Abandoning the paper, Paul tore off his bandanna and wiped the beads of sweat collecting on his forehead behind the red curls. "This is. Not. Good…"

Ban knew an opportunity for extortion when he saw one. "That's nothing. Last night, they went up to her house and her dad wasn't home…" he cackled.

The snake found himself talking to Paul's hand. "Shut it.! I don't need to know –" What was the point of ignorance being such bliss when imagining things would drive you crazy anyway? "All right! I'll cut a hundred grand from your tab. Just - just keep an eye on them, for chrissakes!"

"Hmmm… I'm not sure if I can spare an eye, these being precious commodities and such…"

"Half!" he roared.

"Deal." With a puckering sound, Ban dramatically popped his cigarette out of his smug mouth.

Paul opened the freezer door and frantically stuck his head into its chilly confines. "It always starts out like this. And then, boom! Before you know it, they'll be sneaking into the backroom, and… and…" he babbled mournfully into the frosty mist. "… Shit. Her father's going to kill me, I know it… Gonna throw me off a skyscraper…"

_Sucker._ Ban laughed.

Everything was going to turn out just fine.

**-**

Ginji helped Natsumi climb down the step ladder. Pulling back, the two leaned on the counter and inspected their handiwork of lining up the toys on top of Paul's wine cabinet. Ginji needed a temporary place to crash his pets until that time he and Ban found a pad for themselves to crash into. The Get Backers being the Get Backers, however; that wasn't anytime soon. The Honky Tonk was as good a home as any.

"We need to win you some more animals, don't you think?" Natsumi suggested. She tugged on Ginji's sleeve. "I know. They have lovely toys over at the amusement park. We should go sometime."

"What a great idea!" he agreed lavishly. "That way, we can enjoy the rides as well."

"And this time, we won't let Ban-san out of our sight," she chuckled, though with a determined, sneaky edge to her voice. "Who knows, we might even hook him up with someone…"

"…in the Tunnel of Love," Ginji whispered.

"No way!" Natsumi gasped at the sheer impossibility of getting Ban inside that cheesy ride – with a date, no less. She kicked Ginji's sneaker for thinking up such an absurd plot. He kicked hers in return. Squealing with laughter, the youngsters played footsie for a while until Natsumi almost tripped. Instinctively, Ginji threw an arm around her waist to brace her, eliciting fond reminiscences in both of them of an intimacy that could've been, should've been, would've been. Instead, he sinuously glided his arm away and tucked his hands underneath the eaves of the bar.

Ginji glanced up at the menagerie contemplatively. "You know, I still have to win a toy for myself – a big, nice one. I was thinking of a pure white cat…" His gaze dropped and settled on the high school student's delicate, serene face. The blond's left hand emerged from behind his back as if in a summons. "… to go with your teddy bear."

"And are you sure you can win her for yourself?" Natsumi smiled, her right hand drifting magnetically away from her side.

"Aa. My luck is already changing as we speak," Ginji drawled confidently.

At his last word, the tips of their fingers met and caressed ephemerally, a touch of parts in lieu of the whole. Hidden away from prying eyes, and even from the view of a castle that peered through the window; Natsumi's slender hand molded snugly into Ginji's, fingers entwined in perfect coupling.

A promise to finish what had been started.

The young pair traded wide-open gazes that shone with hope. To Natsumi's delightful discovery, Ginji's hand was not merely the pocket of friendly warmth and solace she had felt the previous night on the bridge. Now, there was a spark, a tingle, however slight; of expectation, anticipation; the seductive vibe of a suitor's touch. The only thing, really, she had wanted from him since the start.

And it made her happier still to know that they were willing to give each other so much more.

For that was all Ginji and Natsumi needed at the moment. They would not play for the small prizes, worth a trifle, a perfunctory kiss, or a night of passion without promise; but for the big ticket items worth a lifetime of their dreams, a future, and infinite security. Ginji and Natsumi knew that if they saved their pennies, played the right numbers and used their trump cards for last; the odds would be in their favour that someday, they would win not just a windfall of prizes they had long wanted, but the whole jackpot…

Ginji tilted forward and touched his forehead to Natsumi's, giving her the most peaceful and contented of smiles.

… A prize so special, it was worth waiting for.

-

_**The End**_

-

**A/N2: **I hope this (innuendo-rife) chapter of fluffy nonsensemade up for the angst. Special thanks goes to **Rabid Lola** for suggesting the use of Ginji's toys to decorate the Honky Tonk. :D

**_Rabid Lola : _**You've been much too kind with that first line of your review. So, guess what? It's all downhill from here. ARGH! Hehe.

I know, I've made Ban angsty/fatalistic on this fic, having him realize how heavy his curse is to bear. But the way things are going in the manga, it kinda fits (Have you read the latest Voodoo Child summaries? Looks like he's going to have to face his own ? soon. Wah! Can't get any more tragic than that T.T).

That section about Ban and dreams is actually worth a one-shot fic. Might try out something with it. :)

You know, I've always acknowledged the slashy tendencies of GB, being a bishounen series and all; but I try to portray how much Ban and Ginji "love" each other without them being yaoi, because their indebtedness to each other is _far_ beyond sexual. I'm glad you think that point somehow comes across in my fic. Thanks!

The perverted discussions? Yeah. Boys will be boys. And in this chap, Ginji is such a boy, hehe. Bad Ban-chan, rubbing off on Ginji like that. BONK!

**_Endless : _**THANK YOU for sharing that little present. I LOVE it! No, I'm not offended at all. You had me giggling like an idiot for hours (especially since Natsumi is still wearing an apron through it all hahahaha). Yes, I'm so twelve. Did you create those chars yourself? Good resemblance. In fact, I'm kinda imagining those frames as an alternate ending to Chapter 4. You know, what would happen if Natsumi actually invited Ginji into her house? Right (snickers). Unfortunately I don't play The Sims. (small voice) Do you have more? Just kidding. :D Hope you liked this ending. Cheers!

**_hikari : _**Yup. They're okay. Hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for tuning in!

**_Nisha :_** Hallo! Thanks for your very kind words. How do I come up with this stuff? It isn't so hard with Ban's character since I'm quite a lot like him (with a bit of Akabane mixed in. Eek!). Oh, and the testosterone-jacked loser dorks is something you should beware of, especially if they're wielding leaf blowers in autumn. Tip: wear pants, or else a stacked-heel boot you can conveniently plant into the middle of said loser-dorks' foreheads, hehe. (wink)

**_limelie: _**With regard to my question on "I'm Still Here", I don't mind waiting for your reply. I really don't want to keep a genius 13-year-old from her studies, hehe. So you see yourself as Ban in this fic? Okay, I owe you a Prozac (wink). I'm sorry you had to start all over again with your summary. And yes, I agree with you on Himiko. I don't know what the creators' beef is with her, but she gets more nekkid than Hevn, for crying out loud. And she's only 16! And now in the Voodoo Child Arc they're turning her into a kook. Aye-yi-yi. Thanks for the RR.

**_machanbanlover :_** It's a love triangle, but the only romantic angle here refers to GinjiNatsumi. Ban's 'love' here is more um, sacrificial: ) BanxHimiko? Hmm… I have a series coming up (hopefully) that might… could… well, we'll see. Don't know when I'll be able to put it up. Wait for it, ok? Thanks for reading. Hope you liked this ending.

**_YunCyn :_** Thank you! I hope this is happy enough an ending for a fic of this kind. As for Ban, I think he's pleased he could do something for his best friend despite the circumstances.

May I be allowed to use this space to tell you I think you're a talented writer and that I look forward to more of your work. :D Cheers!

**-**

So I'll see you when I see you next. You've been a great audience. Till then, signing off. Bye:D


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